The Roller Coaster -August 22, 2010

Sunday before my fourth chemo round. We're at Joy's, just relaxing. It's a gorgeous day...not too hot in the valley for us northern California coastal folks. We spent a little time with Damian and Sarah yesterday at the Davis Farmer's Market, followed by lunch. It's been really nice to be able to see everyone more frequently - even though the reason for it isn't great.

So this chemo cycle has been pretty lousy. I had a couple of good days initially, then pretty much slipped off the radar for last weekend. That much has been the usual for the first week. However, this second week has been very up and down, complicated by dizziness, exhaustion, some exertional shortness of breath, etc. While I've been able to do some work, it also took me 30 minutes to change the sheets and duvet cover on the bed and when Scout ran down the hill into the garden...well, it was quite an adventure to get her back to the house by myself.

Told all this to my oncologist who said it was unusual to be so fatigued. Got some blood drawn and my hemoglobin (the cells in the blood that carry oxygen around the body) was 9.5. This number is 2.5 grams below normal...so I'm anemic. Explains a lot, but having the explanation doesn't actually help me feel better. When we went to the Farmers' Market and lunch on Saturday, I was pretty much done energy-wise after a couple of hours. Laid down at Joy's and slept for five hours. Went to bed and slept through the night - another nine hours!

Another weird thing: I've been having very hot and sore soles of feet. A burning sensation combined with soreness in heels, balls of feet and toes. Turns out Adriamycin sometimes causes "hands and feet" syndrome...just what I described. Who knew? Prescription is lots of lotion on hands and feet. I can do that.

So tomorrow is the fourth and last cycle of the AC - thank goodness! The doses are going to be reduced a bit so that my bone marrow will recover better (hopefully). Next comes the Taxol, which is supposed to be easier. Fingers are crossed! I can now fly again, so we're going to try to figure out how to shorten these long treatment weekends. I love seeing kids and family, but I miss being at home and miss our pets too!

Sorry to be grumpy today, but I am pretty crabby about being tired all the time. My gardens haven't seen me once this summer. The weeds in the backyard areas that i usually maintain are out of control.I have interest in knitting for only a few days of the cycle - and I can hardly count the patterns some days. Cooking, cleaning the house? Ha! Thank God for Jim!

Oh well. Enough complaining. I hope you all are enjoying this wonderful weather. Send a little more sunshine to Crescent City, please...Jim's tomatoes need it. And, if you want to pick wild blackberries, schedule a trip to see us. They're just about ripe!