The Night after the Day Before

Good evening, dear reader.  I’ve re-written this blog entry several times now, and none of them flowed for me.  Maybe I’m distracted by the hockey game (Flames vs Wild) but I just can’t seem to get inspired.  However, I will try to give a readable update.

Dianne has had her 2nd chemo treatment, and is now trying to recover from the effects of it.  It has not been completely horrible, but it has not been completely brilliant either.  The ‘feeling sick’ part of it hit fairly soon after the administration of the drugs, but it was manageable.   By late Friday night, she was feeling pretty miserable, but did manage to finally fall asleep.

Saturday morning started pretty good.  But it didn’t last long.  Once Dianne started the steroid treatment (2 pills per day for 3 days), the day started to go downhill.  For the rest of the day, it was a really up and down battle.  For brief periods of time, she would feel not bad, but then would sink back down and feel like crap again.

That was pretty much the day.  Up.  Down.  Up.  Down.  Down. Down.  Up.  Down.  You get the picture.  Right now, she is resting seemingly comfortable.  Hopefully she can get a good sleep tonight.

On Sunday, Dianne and the kids will go to Barrhead and spend spring break with her parents.  This will be a good distraction for the kids, as well as Dianne.  She should have a fair bit of time to rest there.

And that, dear reader, is all I have for now.  As I said, I’m simply not feeling inspired.  It’s probably pretty obvious by the clinical type of update.  And by clinical, I mean boring.  Oh well, better luck next time.

Cheers.

RK

Not too bad at all…….

Hello dear reader.  Here it is….the latest goings-on in the life of my wife (wahey!!!  I’m a poet and I didn’t know it).

This morning, Dianne had a pre-chemo appointment at the CCI.  This included blood work and a chat with the doctor.  I suppose you’re all getting curiouser and curiouser about the results, so without further ado….here they are.

Good.

Thanks for coming, see ya next time.

Ok, well…if you’re reading this that means you didn’t fall for it.  *sigh*  I really need to work on that.  Of course, if I’d have published at that point, what would ya’ll have done?  Oh well, at least I’m laughing ^_^
Here is the latest rundown:  the blood work showed that her counts are perfect!!  This means that she bounced back from the low / no immunity stage really well.   This means that round 2 of chemo is going ahead as scheduled.  Dianne will be going on steroids starting tonight.  This is to promote white blood cell growth.  They are starting this a bit early so that they can find out if she can handle the ‘roids.  If she can’t, then the 2nd type of chemo (in the last 12 weeks) cannot be administered.  The ‘roids are in pill form, so hopefully she’ll be able to keep them down over the next little while (post-chemo).

Dianne convinced them not to put on any anti-nausea meds, in light of how poorly she reacted to them last time around.  It looks like Gravol will be the official drug of choice.  We are both please that they agreed to this (although there was never really any concern that they wouldn’t).

The doctor did not mention anything about the results of her previous ultrasound, so we are assuming that no news is good news.  And by good news, I mean that we are assuming that the cancer is contained at this point.  Why did she not ask, you’re wondering?  I think it slipped her mind…maybe when we’re at the CCI next, we can ask about it.  Dianne will be going for another ultrasound in the near future just to see how things are progressing.

The only sort of bad but not really bad and not totally unexpected thing that we found out today is that the tumors have not shrunk at all.  But, being only 3 weeks into treatment, we did not really expect anything else.
And that, dear reader, is it for today.  Both Dianne and I are in good spirits, and are remaining positive.  The relative ease of the past 3 weeks surely does help one’s outlook on the whole thing.  We are not expecting the journey to be as smooth as this, but at least now it is 3 weeks shorter.

Thank you to Gerda for giving Dianne a ride to the CCI this morning.  Thank you to Arlene for babysitting Rebecca.  And a special shout out goes to my buddy Ryan and his wife Dana.  Dana is also a breast cancer patient, and is roughly at the same treatment time frame as Dianne.  Stay strong, Ryan and Dana!!  The four of us can go down this road together.  Ryan, I’ll bring some homebrew over tonight.

Cheers.

Bald for Cancer

In support of my dear wife Dianne. 

My initial bald pictures...







 

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

It’s done.  Pretty much done.  I don’t know if I reported in an earlier post about the state of hair in this house.  (It’s not like I actually read these things).  Well, the last week or so have been an itchy and sometimes sore experience for my dear wife.  Last night (Friday), we noticed that it was getting real close to falling out.  So, the decision was made.

This afternoon, after I got home from work, we first went to Michaels to pick up some fabric coloring stuff so the kids could color a couple bandanas for us.  Then, when we got home……*sigh*.  It was done.  I used our clippers (professional clippers at that!!) and shaved her head.  I did not shave it down to the nub, but it was cut with no guard on the clippers.  It’s short.  Oh, so short.  Shorter than what I keep my hair.

This is a really blatant way for reality to hit once more.  Nope, we are not dreaming.  I suspect it won’t take long for the kids and I to get used to the new look.  Rebecca’s biggest complaint was that ‘Now Mommy looks like Uncle!!!!’  (I’m not sure if she’s referring to John or Andy LMAO).  David took it all quite stoically.  The trauma was not as bad as it could have been.

Once Dianne’s hair cut was done, mine was next.  Usually, Dianne cuts my hair with a #2 guard on the clippers.  This time, she did it with no guard.  And, to follow up, I went over the stubble with my electric razor.  And now, I look like Rebecca’s other uncle (Uncle Pete!!).  As of this writing, Pete can say that he officially has more hair than someone in the family.  It’s been years since he’s said that.  (Pete, is 2009 another year of the bald eagle?)

And that, dear reader, is the state of hair in our house.  That’s a big enough change for now.  So, if you attend Providence CanRC, I strongly suggest that tomorrow morning, you wear sunglasses.  My scalp is blinding.

And my wife is still hawt!!!!  And I love her, hair or no.  That will never change.

Cheers.

 

Another week begins....

'Allo, dear reader.  And welcome to what's left of Monday.  I would have written earlier, but really, you would not have liked the mood I was in.  I was feeling mean, nasty and cruel all wrapped up in one ham sandwich.  Probably a good thing I didn't write, huh?

And then, I came home, saw my beautiful wife and my great kids, and all was good again.  Have I ever mentioned that I despise Mondays?  I don't do them gracefully.  As a matter of fact, I fall into Mondays from great heights with devastating accuracy.  And usually do a 3-point landing, with one point being my nose.

Anyway, you didn't drop by to hear me moaning.  I'm pretty sure you'd rather hear how Dianne is doing.  She is doing fairly well.  The heartburn has disappeared (have I mentioned that already?).  Now, my dear wife is tired...a wee bit of insomnia kicked in last night.  Hopefully tonight she will sleep a bit better.

And that, dear reader, is all I have for tonight.  All is well, Monday is almost over.  Tomorrow is another day.  And for me, it couldn't come soon enough.  For us as a family, we celebrate that today was a fairly good day, all things considering.  And for that, we thank our Lord.

Cheers.