Chemo Two The Sequel

Chemo treatment number two Thursday January 29th took almost as long as the first treatment despite being told that it would be about an hour less time. From 9:00 AM until after 4:00 PM. I had scheduled work this day and Margo insisted that she would be fine with my girls since ‘all you do is just sit there and I sleep the first two hours anyway’ (with the Benedryl that they give her). So Jamie took Margo and spent the morning with her and Jacki came in the afternoon until it was it was over. Margo had left her cell phone charger in Phoenix and so I thought that her cell phone was not working and that I would be unable to reach her during the day. So I left a message with Jamie to let me know if everything was going OK. She in turn left me a voice mail saying that everything was going well.
This chemo seems to be not quite as difficult as the first one. We reason that the first was worse because of having recently bid farewell to our two missionaries and Margo feels that the nausea pill and not the prednisone (or possibly the combination of the two drugs) may have been more the reason for the depression the last time. She has tried not to take the nausea meds and so know is feeling the nausea more intensely. The PA gave her an RX for an anti-depression drug, but said that it wouldn’t help this time since it has to be taken for a number of days before you actually expect to be depressed. Since Margo is not accustomed to taking many drugs she prefers to see how it goes this time before filling the RX. Her face and neck seemed to be a little more ‘flushed’ in the area of the port as compared to last time and she reported feeling bloated. The day after her chemo we attended a grandnephew’s wedding in the Mount Timpanogos temple at 1:00 PM after which we had a lunch/dinner and got home about 5:00 PM. Margo laid right down and didn’t wake up until 9:30 or 10:00 PM long enough to have a little something to eat and then went right back to sleep. This is so uncharacteristic of Margo as typically 6 hours of sleep and she is good to go. So far the biggest symptom of the chemo is complete exhaustion. Saturday was a much better day. We attended our grandson Ethan’s baptism and a luncheon afterward at our daughter Jacki’s house. We ran some errands including picking up some scarves and hats that Margo’s niece had made for her and then we returned home and Margo rested for a few hours and then she felt up to dinner and movie. It was a great deal of fun and though water is beginning to taste bad again, her food at least had some taste to it.
Jamie hosted a hat and scarf party for Margo on Wednesday night and so many dear friends and family attended despite the fact that those who did not have 4 wheel drive had to hike in the snow up our long, miserable, mountain driveway. At the conclusion of the festivities, I had to ‘ferry’ friends and family down the hill to their vehicles. Margo fairly glowed and was so pleased to see so many of her friends respond with such love and kindness.
Looking for some positive in this experience, we feel as if we are being compelled to write a journal (in the form of a blog) which neither of us have been very diligent doing pre-cancer. Also, we have been given an incredible appreciation for our relationship to one another and our children as well as for the blessing that friends are in our lives. A very sad and sobering experience for us in the last two weeks was the fatal heart attack of a former neighbor and good friend (Mike McClelland) who was just my age. It is so hard to imagine losing your companion and our prayers and tender thoughts are with his widow, Cher.
I pray that by next weekend Margo will be feeling well enough to enjoy the trip that she has had planned with her daughters for many months to see ‘Wicked’ in San Francisco where my daughter Mindi lives. If the history of the recovery from the last chemo is any indication then she should do just fine. Since she will be at her nadir as far as white cell count, we are having her take masks to wear on the plane and in public; which she dreads wearing in addition to the wig.