Sunday, October 21-

We did it! Chemo successfully completed last Thursday... using two drugs methotrexate & mitoxantrone. No untoward reactions the day of nor after.... appetite may have even improved since another drug, called dexamethasone is given the first few days of chemo because its a powerful anti-nausea. I call it my mighty mouse drug because it makes me feel falsely well and able:) So here we are at Sunday and doing very well..... pain has increased this past week, but it is early yet to look for a decrease in symptoms due to chemo. May also be too early to completely call this a cake walk because the second week the damage to cells, normal and tumor, shows up. The second week brings the lowest blood counts and thus the greatest danger of infection. But who cares!!! We did it! Onwards and upwards.

Since I was unable for chemo the previous week I managed to get a lot done:) Thursday I went shopping, Friday I went to Grace and Raymond Cooper's wedding; ceremony & banquet and stayed late:) Saturday Paula Young and Dana Petersen visited (all the way from SK can u believe it?) then out for supper Sunday night. Sunday was two meetings and then Tyson and Lori Good had my birthday supper at their house. It was a wonderful birthday party at the end of a wonderful day.

I was feeling a bit like a fraud by the end of the week, but i was truly "too sick" for chemo on Tuesday. The difference might have been the antibiotic prescribed by the oncologist on Tuesday to decrease my bacterial load... by Wednesday my cough was mostly gone and the terrible dragged out feeling had vanished.

Chemo will be given every 21 days which means the next session is November 8th... assuming blood counts are adequate. After a few sessions effectiveness will be evaluated objectively with some sort of scans.