Day 8

The past few days since my last update have been a real roller coaster. The bulk of the pain has stopped, but my taste is still missing. I still get tired when I try to get too much done. Saturday was nice, we took the boys to Dutch Wonderland. It was great to go outside in the cold with no pain and no fatigue, I was amazed. It was also great for the boys to go out and have fun for a few hours. Although I found out on Saturday night that I could no longer tolerate plain water, the taste just became horrible. My kids thinks I'm nut saying "Mommy water doesn't taste anything!"

We have very kind friends that surprised us with baskets of goodies & Christmas gifts for the boys on Sunday afternoon. It was a very nice diversion for all of us and the boys had a great time. They weren't quite sure what to think of it all, but it was fun. It is so nice to be surrounded by people that loves us and support us in so many ways.

While we had a good time on Sunday, it was also a rough day, everything I tried drinking tasted bad and the only thing I could handle drinking was milkshakes! The problem is that I'm supposed to be getting between 2-3 quarts of fluids per day, that is a minimum of half a gallon! So I took a small trip to the grocery store this afternoon, the poor cashier must have thought I was crazy. I bought just about every different kind of juice that is out there, including Popsicles & extra ice cream since I know the milkshakes works. I ended spending $70 in juice! So far it's not looking to good, I tried 2 and cannot tolerate neither. I'll be having happy kids for the next few weeks, we're water drinker and don't typically have juice in our house, so whatever doesn't work for me, they'll be drinking! I tried distilled water, which at first thought was great (read drinkable!) but now that I'm trying to finish my cup as I type, it's tasting worse & worse. Still drinkable, but looks like it won't be long before it hits the no list. My taste buds acting up is becoming very difficult to handle, I'm starting to think that I'd be happier with nausea.

I just found about what they call the nadir. Nadir is the point during your treatment where your blood count is at it's lowest, meaning the time where you're most likely to get an infection or get sick and when I really need to stay away from people with colds. With Taxotere, nadir is day 5-9 and with Cytoxan, nadir is day 10-14. I was assuming that chemo would get you at the lowest the day of treatment then you would slowly get better until they knocked you down again. No!

So I'm glad I found that information.

Well, today is day 8 and both of my children have a cold. I'm trying to stay away from them, they're being so good and understand that I can only do hugs and no kisses, but it's hard on me too. I've had a bad ear ache all day and fear an infection, so I'll have to call in tomorrow to be sure. I need to get some surgical masks, I'll get some pink ones so that they don't look as bad ;)

Otherwise today was a good day. I'm heading to bed and hoping for a full night sleep, these are hard to find these days.