FIVE TO GO AND COUNTING

Today was the beginning of my fifth of Six sessions. Each session has three chemo treatments and one week off with just the drug Herceptin. I have completed Four full sessions. I have two more chemos this session and then I begin the 6th and final round. which will be three chemos and one Herceptin and should end on Feb 24th.

Since I last wrote....this little fungus has been making home in my mouth...called Thrush or Candida. no fun, little sores that gravitate to your tongue, lips inside, throat sometimes, need I say more. Typical Western doctors prescribe a benadryl mouth wash, and then a 7 day oral antibiotic, and the sores just sit there. So I go up to the house of a friend that Julia is house sitting for and there on the coffee table is a 5 page article on candida from the naturopath perspective. What a thoughtful thing to print out. ( It turns out it was there by chance and had nothing to do with me) But not knowing that, and totally frustrated I hit the local Vitamin Cottage. $80.00 later and a bag of bottles labeled Olive leaf, Fungal Defense, oil of Oregano, grapefruit seed extract, I was on my way to a healed mouth that could eat and drink and even taste a little bit. When I shared this with my Dr. he wrote it off to the time frame and said it would have healed either way. You gotta love these Western Docs. for their stubborn mindset. God forbid there be any real value in alternative medicine...it's like Disneyland to them. But I will say they are dam good at what they do. Do Not Draw Outside the Lines- kind of philosophy.

So that said...last week I saw a Nurse Practiconer who was young and very thorough. She got me all freaked out by a piece of the written report from my PT scan regarding a lump in my neck that had not previously shown. My Doctor had made no mention of this three weeks ago. So I've been on pins and needles for today's appointment to get the skinny on my neck. GOOD NEWS..and this is where the experience of an Oncologist with 30 years of work plays in, it was irrelevant to my treatment or protocol and there is no need to be concerned. He is 100% certain the treatment is working aggressively doing what it is suppose to do. He then elaborated on radiology and where all these disciplines do and do not work together in the patients best interest. It was a fascinating conversation and put me at ease. By the way those white blood cells- my count today was 6,000. Now that's a ton of white blood cells.

From there I made my way to the leather recliner which all but has my name on it on Weds. Got my cancer infested (not so true now) body comfortable while they hooked me up for my 3 hour infusion. Made it through a very brief visit with a few nurses, other chemo patients, and Julia's devoted parents who visit EVERY Weds, before I fell fast to sleep.

I am home and cozy now, slept off the afternoon. A friend dropped by some Thai cabbage chicken salad and I am ready to venture back upstairs and call it a night (after another cup of tea and a hot epson salt bath)

Have to share my fortune from my fortune cookie:

"You area deep thinker with a knack for problem solving"

Imagine that. And for you lotto players, gamblers, and number readers, my lucky numbers are

05 14 23 35 41 9

Everybody say a prayer for Haiti. It makes it dam hard to complain about anything, and I mean anything...

Sweet Dreams to all of you and thanks for all the support!!!