a rough week...

Wow, where does the time go. Got home from Disney on Sunday, Nov 9th and here it is a week and a half later already. We had a grand time at Disney, it was fun having the kids all there. We had our company party at the China Pavillion at Epcot...it was so fun having the little China doll, Maia there with us. I introduced her to Brent, an owner of ASCOA, and she told him that she was born in China, the real China, not the fake China....she's a hoot. Disney was great, but it's somewhat sensory overload for little kids. Heather and Ralph had a grand time for themselves, had lunch with Mikey and friends, and spent a lot of time in the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. The conference for work went well, but it was pretty exhausting, up every morning at 5am to get down in time to see that everything was in order, etc. It was nice to get home on Sunday night and relax.

On Tuesday, I went in to MGH to start Round 5. I took Heather with me---she had been laid off from her job at the Boston law firm on the day before, which was pretty traumatic for her. Heather is very nurturing and this was a good opportunity for her to be that, and to give her a visual of what happens on infusion day.

On Thursday, I wasn't feeling very well at work and headed home early. I had a temp, so took some Tylenol and hit the sack early. In the morning, Friday, I had a very sore swollen gland and the fever was at the point where I have to call MGH, so I did and they sent me over to Jordan Hospital to have blood drawn. MGH called later in the afternoon and said that the numbers were all good, that I must be fighting a bug. I basically was a couch potato all weekend, with zero energy...going up the stairs was a huge effort. The fever was up and down all weekend, finally settling down to normal on Sunday afternoon. The only productive thing that happened over the weekend was that I got my laundry done! Also, on Saturday, I had lunch down at the Waterfront with a bunch of gals that I used to work with--there were about 12 of us there I think. It was very fun seeing and visiting with everyone again. I almost cancelled--it had been such an effort to get ready, that I didn't know if I had any energy left to actually go, but I did go and was so glad that I did....

Went in to MGH on Tuesday for Day 8 infusion. Bloodwork again came back great. Kara could still feel the swollen gland, but the soreness is totally gone. She considered cancelling the infusion for the day, but since my bloodwork was good, we decided to proceed....thank goodness--I don't want to get off-schedule and off-track. During the infusion, a nutritionist came by, probably triggered by the fact that I'd lost 5 lbs in a week, but I'm sure I'll find them...haha, or more likely that they'll find me! Anyway, her first question was, how are you getting your protein? DING DING DING---Protein??? Hadn't even given protein a thought of late. After speaking with her, it became obvious that I'm not doing well in this area. We came up with a plan, and I stopped at Whole Foods (really an effort in my current state!) and I got some supplies.

So, I feel better that I think we have this total lack of energy thing figured out. Not just a total lack of energy, but an effort to do the slightest thing! It's such a vicious circle---no appetite to motivate me to put a decent meal together, no energy to do it, and it tastes not great anyway, with the metallic taste in my mouth!...and on top of that...if I eat too much I have heartburn and acid reflux from the chemo....YIKES! No wonder I lost 5 lbs! But, even with that said, I know I'll feel so much better when I'm back on track--I feel much better just knowing that I'm on my way to being back on track.

So....onward and upward.