As the next round of chemo approaches (July 22), I am assured by the professionals that things will only get better. Unfortunately, I was trying to be the informed patient and I did a little research on Taxol and Herceptin and uncovered some of that scary stuff that they have to put out there even if it is only a small percentage of people who react that way to the drug. So, I am getting a little nervous going into this next round of chemo. I know I have all of you praying and supporting me, so whatever it is, I'll deal with it and make the best of it. Hopefully, this will be one of the few times that I am not in the small percentage of people who have a severe reaction!!!
I had a very nice birthday. A friend called and surprised me with tickets to the local AAA baseball game (GO ROUND ROCK EXPRESS!) so we all got great seats to watch the game and the fireworks. Thank you Jill and Nicki! As gifts, I got a handmade scrapbook from Meggie, a gift card to a scrapbook store from Brady, as well as a book on planing a cruise from Scot. Taking a cruise is one of those things on my bucket list that I am anxious to do. We are hoping to be able to take a cruise this winter to celebrate turning 40, 15 yr anniversary, finishing chemo and radiation, and Scot's upcoming 40th as well. That's a lot all rolled into one, we should be able to get a cruise out of all that! As I read through the book, I realized that it would be very easy along the way at one of the ports to cross swimming with dolphins off of my bucket list as well. This one has been on my list since childhood. I even wanted to be a dolphin researcher/trainer as a kid. My practical parents, pressed me towards engineering or law. Turns out none of us got our way.
I have had several attacks of chemo brain in the last few weeks. It provides a lot of comic relief, but it can also be quite annoying. I have trouble finding the right words. I handed Meg a spoon the other day and told her to "circle" the food. I remember the names of my friends but have had a few brain freezes when it comes to their kids names, kids I have know for 5-6 years. I have also called the kids their mother's names. I was embarrassed this am to find myself going the wrong way out of a one way driveway from the church after dropping Meg off at vacation bible school. God continues to watch over me and thank goodness, no one was trying to enter as I was coming out! One of the really annoying things about this has been my typing. My pinky has gotten slow on the uptake and most times that I hit the shift key to capitalize, the second letter gets capitalized as well and I have to backspace to correct. Maybe I should think positive and assume that it's not my pinky reacting slower, it's my other fingers getting faster. Yes, that's it, chemo has made 9 of my fingers faster at the keyboard!
I am really excited about the Komen Race for the Cure team (M&M) that is forming in support of my friend Michelle and I. It should be a lot of fun and I am thrilled to be the reason that many new people will be joining the walk this year. I had my check-up last week during the time that Michelle was getting her last AC infusion, so we got to spend some time together chatting about the race and the t-shirt design, which will be really cute! In less than 3 weeks, both Michelle and I will be on weekly infusions and spend a lot of time together. It will be nice to have the company, but I wish we were hanging out over lunch or coffee, rather than a chemo infusion. Well, that will come later.
The Smith family is looking ahead to this Thursday when we depart for Shreveport for a few days to visit one of my favorite people, my college roommate Julie and her family. The whole family has fun when we are all together and we look forward to a good relaxing time with the Lyles family. I fully expect the kids to stay up too late and get way too silly and hopefully the adults will do the same. I should be close to full chemo patient strength when we visit. I hope my pinky is working better when I bust out my Guitar Hero/Rock Band persona this weekend.
The World Cup is now over, so I am going to have to come up with another excuse to spend 3 hour stretches sitting on the sofa in front of the tv. I have stopped watching a lot of the shows I used to watch. I guess when you have one of these kind of life altering "scares". It kind of makes you wonder if sitting watching tv is the best use of your time. About a month ago, I gave up All My Children. I had been recording and watching every episode of this show since college! So I now have an extra 40 minutes 5 days a week that I can devote half of my attention to. Because as most of you women out there know, as I watched I was at least doing 1-2 other things (dishes, laundry, cooking, eating, talking on the phone). Still, television can sometimes provide some good/bad entertainment and comic relief.
I would be spending my extra time scrapbooking. I have really enjoyed doing that during my "rest" time from chemo. However, I ran out of Disney pictures and I am waiting on the next batch to arrive from Snapfish, so I can go to the scrapbook store and use my gift card to buy all the stickers and papers I need to finish the next batch. I should have paid the extra money to get the photos faster, but then I'd be doing that instead of writing my blog. Hopefully for your sakes those pictures come soon so I don't bore you with the minor details of my life on a daily basis.
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