When I first got my CT Scan results which was the first time I was alerted to the fact that I might have cancer, I couldn’t bring myself to tell my 14-year-old son. He has just started high school about a month ago. Things are going so well for him. On his own initiative, he took a summer geometry course at a local community college this past summer so he could take AP math in his senior year. He did well, already got his first A before school started. He enrolled himself in JROTC for their training. He is in the marching band, going to every football game on Friday nights. On top of all the school activities, he works part-time at Kumon one night a week and goes to his kung fu classes 3-4 times a week. He has a full life! I couldn’t bear the thought of crushing his young adult life with bad news! How do you tell your son you have cancer out of the blue?!
[Read more…]Small Steps
Thank you all for your suggestions on nausea! I am happy to report I have not vomited since that one time and I have eaten a couple of small meals. I still feel nauseous and dizzy sometimes, but as long as I keep my food down, I am a happy camper!
Pat brought over (along with dinner and other goodies) these Sea Band wrist bands. They work on pressure points on both wrists to control the nausea. Really works! That with some ginger tea and some really boring bland food makes the world so much brighter! 🙂
After spending two days in bed, I was upright for a bit here and there today. Feels good to be out of bed even though I can only shovel my feet around very slowly. I was going to try a tai chi set, but it took too much effort even to think about it. Maybe tomorrow.
Pat brought over Sea Band, ginger, and food, Katalin brought me alkaline water, then 3 angel friends showed up this afternoon with vacuum and mop. They made my house sparkling clean!! Wow, the house finally has some resemblance of life rather than looking like a tornado disaster zone!! (yes, I know we have been hit with a disaster, and little things like cleaning is way down the priority list.) Brett said, let’s sell the house now, it will never be this clean again! lol!
I am so blessed by you all! I can’t thank all the friend enough both close by and far away to send me well wishes, love, and words of encouragement. I love you all so much!
Let it all begins!
Did I say I was done listening to bad news and happy to get all my treatments started in my last post?
Well… it turns out treatment days are not so easy to endure! Can we go back to the good old days where I could just LISTEN to the bad news instead of experiencing it?? lol!!
Yesterday was a rough day. I woke up with bumpy, itchy hives all over me. I thought I was going to go crazy. I called the pharmacist to confirm it is an allergic reaction to my super duper drug. They confirmed it’s not a good reaction and one not so common, they told me to call my oncologist. I called and they were so concerned that they wanted me to stop taking the drug right away until they get a chance to see me in the afternoon when I go in for my first radiation treatment and calcium IV treatment. I reluctantly agreed, but inwardly I was crushed. I knew this drug is my best chance for survival. For non-smoking lung cancer patients, this drug works twice as effective as chemo. Without it, I am not sure if there is any reason to even try chemo. I calmed myself down before my despair could take me to a place of no return. I went back to bed and started my sleeping meditation of just being with my body whatever it is. I might have slept some. A couple hours later, most of my hives were subsided. Some of them were still there, but not itching anymore. I called the oncologist back, they said I could go back to taking my regular dose and evaluate when I get into the office. When I got there, they confirmed it’s an allergic reaction to the drug, but might be able to treat only the hives with an antihistamine like Allegra, so that’s what we decide on. Happy to report this morning I have no hives! One crisis averted!
The calcium IV drip was not painful at the time, but what it does for those of you as ignorant as me about medical things… although bones could look healthy on the outside, but with cancer or osteoporosis, there are lots of microscopic holes inside the bones, so what the medicine does is it seals the bones from the outside, then fills the holes inside. Pretty neat, isn’t it? Except it makes my bones ache all over as the little tiny holes are being filled in!! Every inch of my body… well, only places with bones are hurting. 🙂
As if that’s not enough, you know how everyone says radiation treatments are hard, well, it’s true! hahaha! About an hour after I got home, I had the most violent projectile vomit of my life! I think I threw up what I ate last Sunday!! No worries on constipation or diarrhea because there is nothing left in my system! lol! I am still dizzy and weak this morning. I know I should eat something, but really really afraid. I have no appetite. 9 more sessions of this… I am counting down!
Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes as always! Each of you reaching out with a kind word and a prayer gives me a little bit more strength to endure the unthinkable.Â
A little bit of good news on such a dreadful post, even though this might be way too early… I have only been on Tagresso for 3 days, but yesterday morning (even with the hives) was the first morning I didn’t cough up blood since this whole thing started. I am coughing less this morning, so I take it the drug is doing its miracle work in my body moment by moment.Â
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