Post Holiday Update

It's been awhile since I've written a blog post, but honestly, I've been living life and enjoying the holidays with family and friends, so no regrets on the lack of updates.

I'm sure you're all eager to hear about my Christmas and New Year's holidays.  I spent as much time as I could with my family and friends.  We celebrated with family and friends, and enjoyed all the traditions that we have created and come to love. We enjoyed Christmas Eve worship with our church family.  We dearly missed those family and friends we lost this year, and look forward to the new year and all the new opportunities to grow our bonds with those people who remain.  This year, we will celebrate graduations for Sydney and two of my nieces- Mallory and Olivia,  and a wedding for another niece- Audrey.  

Medically, in December, I finished round 6 of chemotherapy.  I now have a PET scan and MRI this week (Tuesday and Wednesday), an appointment with the oncologist (Thursday) and start round #7 of chemotherapy (Friday).  I will probably also need to squeeze a blood transfusion into this mix, so we will be spending a lot of time in hospital rooms this week and/or next.

In general, I'm doing pretty good with the treatments.  I have some nausea and occasional vomiting in the first 2 days after treatment, and am usually pretty tired and run down.  Coincidentally, my sense of taste is usually thrown off track during treatment weeks, so I feel less like eating.  Determined not to end up back in the hospital for failure to thrive, I force eat foods even when I don't feel like eating, sometimes even eating foods when they taste like cardboard. Ick.

I'm getting better strength-wise as well.  It amazes me how quickly your body can lose muscle mass and strength, but how long it takes to get that strength back.  My lengthy hospital stay in September really threw my body a curveball, and the peripheral neuropathy is making recovery more difficult.  However, I'm finding small ways I can work toward more normal activities of daily living.   

I've found that some of the things I used to complain the most about are things I dearly miss now- grocery shopping, cooking, meal planning, doing laundry, doing my hair and makeup, even just being able to get myself out of bed and go to the bathroom independently.  Thankfully, Jason has been incredibly supportive, and helps me when I can match my ambition to my energy and my stamina.  Last week, that meant preparing a lasagna and a meatloaf.  It also means sitting up long enough to play a card game with my kids and my sister.

Meanwhile, I have a lot of time to watch / play Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy most nights.  I also watch Shark Tank and have binge-watched some true crime documentaries.  I love sports, and I've become a Cleveland Cavaliers fangirl, and of course following my Ohio State Buckeyes in their quest for a national championship.    

Soon I will have an update for you about my scans and the next plan of action we will do, whether it is to continue chemo if the tumors seem stable or improving, or change treatment strategies if it seems like the tumors are worse or not improving as we hope.  Until then, keep up the powerful prayers you are sending up on my behalf.  I appreciate all the thoughtful and encouraging messages and love from you, my family and friends!

This is day 205.

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