It's been a while

I know it has been a while since my last post but with the Thanksgiving holiday it has been a little busy.  We traveled to Orange County for family and what else… a baseball tournament.  I had my second treatment of my new cocktail and I had my first major reaction.  My doctor said I am a bit of a medical mystery because this treatment is suppose to be less invasive than the last one but I seem to be having a harder time with this one.  I get nauseas more often, I am not sleeping at all, I get really flush and warm but am freezing at the same time.  I have had a major reaction 2 of the last 3 treatments.  A major reaction works like this, once I get my pre-meds of my steroid, anti-allergy meds and anti-nausea meds they start the "cocktail".  A few minutes into the chemo starting I get really flush, can't breathe, my heart rate and blood pressure go way up and it feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest.  I then have 4-5 nurses all around me stopping the meds, checking my vitals, pushing more anti-alergy meds in my IV and asking me a ton of questions.  It is just strange how I didn't have any reaction the first time I had this chemo but have had issues the last 2.  I still have 9 more of these to go so they are going to try to slow down the pace of the meds as well as increase my pre-meds to hopefully counter the reaction I am having.

The past week was filled with a lot of activity.  I was able to make it to the Justin Timberlake concert with my oldest son (luckily it was on a Tuesday, which is a good day).  It was an amazing show and a great first concert for him but most of all a great mom and son date night.  Then it was off to San Diego for Thanksgiving with family.  It was so nice just to be able to relax with the family and enjoy some great food although I still can't taste anything, it smelled amazing!  After Thanksgiving we spent the rest of the long weekend down at the beach and the weather was so great.  Nothing like 75 degree weather and gorgeous ocean views to make you forget that you have cancer.  We spent the next 2 days at the baseball fields where my son had the great opportunity to play on the same team with his cousin.  They had such a good time and actually won the tournament. 

Today was a good day, as Tuesdays usually are.  I was able to get some of my Christmas decorations out with the help of my mom and brother.  I am still really behind on a lot of things, I still need to take the picture for are Christmas card and then order the cards so just know they are on there way…they may just be a little late this year.  Tomorrow I have a couple of girlfriends coming over to help me get the rest of my decorations up and to wrap the gifts that I have so far.  Right now all I know is my living room and dining room are covered in boxes and I need to get them out!

The next few days are typically my most difficult and I hope to sleep tonight.  The doctor said that sleeping may be tough because they increased my steroids and that is one of the side effects.  I hope to get more than the 3 hours I got last night.