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| In my chemo chair, laptop out, brother there ready to support, before we knew it wasn't happening today |
Argh! Today I went to Presby with my two favorite guys (Ben and Ryan, my brother), all ready for round 2 of Taxol – which would be round 6 overall, with 10 more to go. The nurse poked her big hook needle through my port and drew my blood as usual, then took it to the lab so we could make sure my counts were good and we could get the meds started. However – today my labs didn’t come back as expected. I could tell by the nurse’s face that she was going to have bad news before she even said anything. A normal white blood cell count is between 4.8 and 10.8. Last week mine was 5 (already on the low end)….but today it was 1. (Yes, one!) So, the doctor denied me my weekly round of fun. Boo!!! To me, this just means that instead of finishing chemo at the end of June, it will be at least July, and if I had known this, I could have found something much more fun to do during Stella’s Mother’s Day Out day today! Just being honest! It was kind of like putting on your workout clothes, finding a babysitter, driving to the gym, getting geared up to work out, only to find out that all the machines are taken and you have to go home without accomplishing anything. Getting there is more than half the battle!
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| Ben at chemo today |
Not to mention that with my white blood cell count this low, I’m at risk for getting infection – so I’m supposed to avoid crowds, germs, and sick people. They put me on antibiotics as a preventative, gave me a Neupogen shot to boost my WBC count (which I will get every week now), and sent me on my way. So, I’ll go back next week (Thursday or Friday, I’m still waiting to hear from the scheduler) to continue my fight. I guess the silver lining is that I won’t have my chemo hangover on my birthday tomorrow – but I still would have rather had one more treatment under my belt!
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| Parkeys before the race |
In other news (much more fun!) – last Saturday was Race for the Cure! I can’t even begin to say how much fun we had and how supportive everyone was. Thank you to EVERYONE who participated in the race, helped organize our team and team shirts, and donated to Susan G. Komen. We had 25 people on Team Alli, and raised $6,760.00 for Susan G. Komen!!! Yes, that deserves three exclamation points – probably more!!! I know it was a big effort for everyone involved – getting up early, driving to Fort Worth, and contributing financially. A bunch of us went to lunch at Uncle Julio’s afterwards and it was the perfect end to a great day. Thanks again to each one of you – it means more to me than you know!
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| Some of my oldest (as in longest) and favorite friends! Tiffany, Blaire, Marlo, Sarah, Meredith, Kim, Alli, Anna, Ashley |
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| Ben and Stella waiting to start the race (nice shirts!) |
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| Team Alli |
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| Action shot during the race: Anna, Meredith, Tiffany, Blaire, Alli, Ben, & Stella |
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| Action shot during the race: Martin, Mom, Ben, & Stella |
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| Ben, Stella, Luke, Angele, and Ryan at the finish line |
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| Stella and Marlo at the finish line |
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| Finish line: Ryan, Meredith, Kim, Sarah, Marlo, Tiffany, Blaire, Anna, Stella, Ashley, and Alli |
8 comments:
Stay strong! Maybe you needed a week off! God knew you wanted to feel great on your 21st Birthday!!! :) You are more of an inspiration than you know. We were so proud to be a part of Team Alli last weekend! Love you!!! XOXO
Angele Burton
Hate to say it...all part of it. I know how it feels to think you're going to power through chemo but what you dont know and what they over look telling you is that the chemotherapy process has an accumulative effect! You can't "time line" this believe me I know. I thought that I would be done with leukemia treatments around Apr/May and it wasn't till Aug (now mine was MUCH more in depth than BC treatments) but still. The body just gets tired even if our "will" isn't. That was hard for me to remember during. You're doing great. Please DO stay away from people and places right now EVEN IF you think "it won't hurt" well it can and does! Isolation is short as opposed to risking infection b/c your whites are down. Not to doom and gloom but cancer treatments/process are like tornados...strong, powerful and at times, unpredictable. For no explanation at all, can change on a dime so....stay away from people while you're neutropenic. They would hospitalize me during that, pump me full of iv antibiotics and sometimes blood, and I would be gone away from my infant son for 2 wks at a time! You're doing so well EVEN if your body isn't bouncing right back...that too is normal...whatever "normal" is right? So happy that you can take company with you during your treatments and so happy that you had fun at your race!
Also one more thing...do you have tissue expanders? I do and couldn't remember if you do or not. Also it's been a while since I've reminded you of this but I'm Kelly, Teresa Renfro's younger sis. :)
Thanks Angele - love you for my 21st b-day wish!! ;) Thanks so much for being part of our team last weekend!!
Kelly - thanks so much for the reminder, I know I need that. I try to remember this is a marathon, not a sprint, although sometimes I just want to power right through it all! Yes, I do have tissue expanders - they are hard and uncomfortable, I'm so looking forward to getting the real implants. I remember that you are Teresa's sis - hope you are both doing well!
xoxo
Alli
Ok great! On Mon I will be 3 wks out and I still have 1 drain!!!! Those exclamation marks are really cuss words ha! The doc did a fill yesterday (unplanned) in efforts to reduce the fluid build up and I think it will work but jeez!! I was so sore last night! Maybe a dumb question but is that normal?! Help! :)
I'm so sorry you still have a drain - argh!! I read that on your blog the other day - that is no fun. :( I had 2 drains for about 8 or 9 days I think, but I never had the fluid build up that you have. I get fills every 2-3 weeks now, but only 40 cc's at a time. My plastic surgeon is taking it slow since we have the time - 5 months of chemo - before I get my real implants.
They want my output to be 25cc for 2 days in a row and I'm at 30cc and I've been at 30/35 for a wk!. It's RIGHT THERE! They said that Mon will prob be the day to take it. I woke with 200cc in ea expander after surgery and he did 100cc in ea yesterday. So that's probably why I'm so sore. I don't got back for a month and then I think the plan is 50cc each time. I go back to work on Tues evening...doing hair!
Thinking of you! Sending positive vibes. Kate
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