May 5, 2025

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"Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice!" Philippians 4:4 

Treatment day. 

I think I handled round 2 treatment last week much better emotionally. There were no emotional outbursts. No irrational thinking. No nasty self talk. Did it try to creep in, yes. I just wouldn't allow it. Nope. Not on my watch. Was able to get some necessary things accomplished this weekend so that's definitely an improvement over the previous weekend. Maybe it's the long conversation I had with my "foster" daughter, Heather. I really miss her. All grown up, family of her own.. despite all the bull shit she went thru in her life, she's turned out to be an awesome human. I love her dearly. Maybe it's the extra chats with daughter, Adrianna, this week that's helped. I really hate having my girls 4 hours away. I love them so much.  Maybe pampering myself Friday afternoon with a mani/pedi/chair massage helped too. 

I touched on Nathan's skin cancer being sent off for further testing previously. We received the results  so no more sitting around wondering about that. He is supposed to have a follow-up scan next month just to check other areas. Hope and pray for the best... I'm not going into details much about his stuff. I don't want to put too much of his "business" out there.

Today is treatment #3. No immunotherapy today. Standard chemo. Hopefully I continue to have no adverse reactions to these drugs. I haven't had any side effects so far... fingers crossed. My RLS was already giving me a fit this morning... these drugs are exasperating the issue I think. Maybe it's in my head. Hard to say. Also woke up with a clogged ear Sunday morning. It's lingering. I'm sure it's from walking around in the rain Saturday taking care of the farm critters. A "side effect" wouldn't appear that far out from treatment and randomly out of the blue I don't think. Dr suggested taking a Claritin to see if that helps clear it up. I won't be doing that. Not to "see" if it helps. I'd rather "see" if it clears itself up. Besides, clogged ear, take allergy meds??? 

There is one side effect I was fully expecting - hair loss. It has started. Not in clumps, but run a brush thru it and you will get a handful. More than normal comes out when I run my fingers thru it too. Sigh. I'm fully aware that this is a thing and fully prepared (wig ordered) but mom and I used to always joke that with the volume of hair I have, hair loss wouldn't ever be a concern of mine. Here we are. I just keep telling myself that it's just hair and it will grow back. In the mean time, I wonder if I can get my eye brows tattooed on..... 

The Girls on the Run Team at Bonsack Elem made gift bags for the patients here at BRCC. They jotted encouraging sayings on the outside of the bag. Things like "Shine bright and beautiful", "Keep pushing, never stop". "You are brave", "You are Strong". How thoughtful, kind and caring of those girls. 

One of the other patients' birthday is today. The room sang happy birthday to her. Made for happy faces all around the room. 



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