Treatment #6 behind me

This was another rough week.  My nurse thought we'd try something new to see about taming my nausea and power vomiting on the night of treatment.  We tried this patch that is supposed to be able to keep the side effects at bay for 7 days.  The patch was off by 7pm Tuesday night.  So much for that. One of the side effects of the patch was a migraine. Check, I got that. I thought I'd stick it out to see if maybe the migraine would subside with tylenol and the patch would take over and manage my vomiting. Nope. Didn't do that either. After what seemed like hours of emptying everything in my stomach (which wasn't much to begin with) I proceeded to sleep it off from Tuesday night until around 430pm Wednesday afternoon. I finally got something in my stomach and it's stayed there, thank goodness.  

I've lost a total of 19 pounds since sometime in April. Not the ideal way to lose weight but I'm keeping an eye on it.  I was up for some weight loss before this all started so I'm good there, but I just hope I can stop it when I hit the ideal weight that's healthy for me.

No pics of me effing off cancer this week. They all came out crappy so not worth sharing. 

So here's the update:  I have an off week next week, YAY.  Instead I go for some labs, a chest CT and a chest Xray to see what this chemo is doing to these little bastard cancer cells.  I am going with my gut, but trying to not get my hopes up too much, that this is actually working. When I started this, my pain was about a 7 or 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. I would say at worst, my pain is about a 2 most times of the day. This means something's working! Between the meds and my medical cannabis that I am taking for pain and nausea, everything is working hand in hand to get me to the point of living somewhat of a normal life.  I really want to get my life back soon. Or at least something that resembles what my life was. 

My doctor is adamant about me getting off of chemo as soon as I possibly can.  What does that mean? It means that my results have to be positive AND at some point I am going to have to endure another invasive biopsy to try to see what this cancer is exactly to see if I can switch over to a hormonal treatment orally and not IV chemo. Won't that be nice?  

Here's the rub. My cancer is made up of all sorts of small tumors in all sorts of places as mentioned before: my abdomen, my lung, my spine, my lymph nodes. So the issue is that without one decent sized mass, they are having a hard time getting a sample large enough to tell them what they need to proceed with another type of treatment. I have had 2 inconclusive invasive biopsies for NOTHING! My big question next week is how the heck they plan to get a sample large enough and where will it come from? Stressing me out? You betcha. 

Visitor update:  We just had an amazing time with Jeff's cousin Sharon and her two beautiful little girls. I was so glad they got to get out and about and see some of what Arizona has to offer. I even felt well enough to spend one night up at the Scottsdale Princess last Saturday night and it was a welcome change from our 4 walls.  I am starting to go stir crazy for sure. 

Well, not a very riveting update but just wanted to check in for those that have been asking.

This past week I received some fun books, some wonderful CDs to help calm me, plants for my yard and a hummingbird feeder, an awesome bracelet and today I received an adorable ceramic kitty all the way from Japan! Thanks everyone xoxo

Big thank you's go out to all of our friends and family who have continued to send me all kinds of sweet cards and gifts to cheer me up and keep me going! I love you all and I absolutely could not make it through this without all the love and support.