This is my 77th blog post, the day after Harriet's fourth chemo treatment. So far so good. There are the notable problems that come with chemotherapy, extreme loss of weight, her white blood cell count has dropped radically low, colitis and on and on. As I said early on in my blog posts, they figure out how much chemotherapy will kill you and then give you just a little bit less than that. Unfortunately it kills so many things in your body.
After the previous chemotherapy, Harriet's potassium level was drastically low and they've been able to bring this up. Now we are dealing with extremely low white blood count. So, starting on Friday after the majority affect of the chemo has worn off, she starts a new treatment. They will give her a series of six shots in her abdominal area, Every other day, and skipping Saturday and Sunday because they don't work. The shots are supposed to help stimulate the production of white blood cells in the bone morrow. I don't know how painful the shots are ( I can guess), but I can tell you from what the doctor said that the effects are that you feel like you have the flu, aching bones/body and so on. It will not be a fun ride.
She starts her course of prednisone 50 mg each day for the next four days. All these different medications have their side effects. Yesterday I received an email from our longtime friend Suzanne. Suzanne told me that her mom had taken chemotherapy for cancer and she felt like she was going to die each time she had her chemotherapy, but that was 30 years ago and her mother is 96 years old now. So, hopefully there is life after chemo.
God bless you and thank you so much for your loving support and prayers.
Maranatha,
Frank and Harriet
No comments:
Post a Comment