...Lace Up Your Gloves...

Or at least that's what Dr. C told us yesterday. Week four, and even though it was a short treatment (Herceptin-only) day, it somehow stretched into the longest ever.

It started with a good run in the morning. Good, if you call 95 degree weather at 5:30 a.m. and 600% humidity "good". Then again, finishing a run, feeling strong, and not having to stop after 2 1/2 miles and use the bathroom because my body has just woken up and decides it just doesn't want to wait anymore, that's pretty damn good. Even if I do have to wring out my clothes when I get into the house. From the sweat, of course.

Then the backpack journalist from 12 News arrived. Promptly at 7:58 a.m. Damn good thing I listened to Greg for once and didn't jack around (too much) with the getting ready. My hair was flat (and still attached), my clothes were ironed, and my jewelery (including my Believe necklace from Aly and Jill) was in place. She stayed for about an hour and a half, interviewed both of us, and got footage of everything from the photos on our wall of trips we have taken and hikes we have hiked, to Nala's grey ass pointing at the camera while she adjusted her position on the couch during Greg's interview, footage of the dogs, the dog footprints after coming back in from the yard, Greg making a smoothie (not much for the audio at that point), and I'm sure some of the Miso-hair dust bunnies on the hardwood floor. Most of that, thankfully, will end up on the editing room floor, and hopefully they'll do a nice job and condense it down to 2 minutes of good stuff. Hopefully I don't look like too much of a dork, and they don't plug the Komen Race for the Cure more than they tell our story. Stay tuned... it should air on September 12.

Treatment was scheduled for 11:15, but included the bi-weekly visit with Dr. C. Which means we went back to the room for weigh, blood pressure, and heart rate around 11:35 and actually saw him closer to noon. Eh, ok. They told us he was running late when we got there.

He asked how I had been feeling, and how the side effects were, and joked "are you sure they are giving you stuff back there?" when we said I had little to no side effects and was pretty much going about business as usual. At that point I asked him if that meant it wasn't working. "It doesn't have to hurt to work," he said. Thank God. Keep bugging him. Apparently he's listening. Dr. C actually said that he was going to up my dosage a bit since he had some wiggle room and mentioned something about having treatments weekly as long as I could handle it, but it being OK if I needed to break for a week for some reason. This part we didn't quite understand at the time since I was coming in weekly anyhow even though the Taxotere was 3 on and 1 off, the Herceptin was still weekly. We soon found out that he had prescribed the Taxotere for that week as well, and assume he meant weekly Taxotere as well. I didn't take it yesterday since I had not taken the pre-meds the day before but when we see him in 3 weeks we can confirm with him if that indeed was what he meant. Meanwhile, from now on I'm up to 60 mg weekly from 50. Hey, whatever works.

So, back to the chemo room, which was pretty painless, except for the additional 30 minute wait in the waiting room and another 15 minutes or so figuring out the meds that were or weren't going to be given. All told, we finally got out of there, ridiculously hungry, around 2 p.m. So much for the quick day....

But wait, the best news! Dr. C did an exam, as he does each time we see him. As he felt the abdominal area he immediately told us that he thought he felt the masses had shrunk and that the bloating was greatly reduced. YA-FREAKIN-HOOO!! Looks like something is working in there! He made sure to let us know that it, of course, was just an opinion and we'd obviously get the concrete results after they stuff me back into a scanning machine (3 months, we're told) but that from his observations, they had decreased in size.

Being that these lump and bumps have been my obsession, and each time I get into bed at night I poke and prod at the general area, I had a feeling that they might have changed, and have noticed that my body seems to be regulating to whatever is going on in there. The bloating has gone down, by my estimation, and even though I've been eating normally, I seem to be back down nearly to my fighting weight (which, incidentally is a few pounds lower than Greg thinks my fighing weight should be). Either way, I'm feeling better about the somewhat disappearing waistline. It may be creeping back in and I don't feel 3 months pregnant anymore (which is a damn good thing because I would make a MISERABLE pregnant person - which is irrelevant).

It is ridiculous to say that it was a nice day yesterday? Who the hell says that chemo day is a nice day? Finally rid of Desert Oncology for the day, we had a much needed lunch at Rock Bottom Brewery, and headed home to find a basket from Larry & Jan of freshwater cucumber scented Bath & Body Works stuff (They spoil me. I don't know why, but they do. At least I won't eat this stuff...). We then proceeded to lay on the couch as I took my now-tradition, post-chemo nap. It's a strange phenomenon, this occurence of me actually allowing my body the time to just hang out and rest, even if I am feeling fine and not feeling like it's a necessity. What a concept. Dinner consisted of nibbling on spring rolls with Sriracha sauce, followed by fresh watermelon and sourdough pretzels. Yes, I know, there's no accounting for my taste buds these days, but it worked, I tell you, it just worked. We headed to bed early and snuggled in and had the opportunity to simply enjoy some time before drifitng off to sleep.

Chemo or no chemo, it was simply one of those days that I know I fell asleep with a big smile on my face. (Good thing, because Tuesday was just kind of "meh".)