Well, shoot, that is awfully small print.  😉

So where were we?  Oh yeah, chemo last week.  SIL arrived Saturday early afternoon and we actually had a rather enjoyable weekend including a shopping trip on Sunday and an afternoon at a local garden place on Monday.     And then there was Tuesday morning.

The best part of the day was that the location for chemo was changed to the hospital near my house.   It was somewhat unexpected but a complete relief.

At the last doctor appointment, I was promised “patient education” which I stupidly thought would happen before showing up for treatment.  Um, no.  The physician assistant who runs the infusion center met with us to explain some things.  And again, I was thrown for a loop.

Turns out I must have had a mental block after hearing the cancer stage and need for chemo – I blocked out the AMOUNT of chemo treatment.  I had accepted two rounds of chemo with a couple of weeks of radiation but had NOT accepted SIX rounds of chemo with SIX weeks of radiation.  That means something like six months of treatment total.  I could have cried.  SIL almost fell off her chair.  And that was how the first round of chemo started.

The day itself went rather well after that – seven hours in a recliner with an IV.  The staff was pretty great and would bring me snacks or water and generally left me alone.  Of course, I’m just trying to figure out how the heck I am going to manage six months of….crap.  It is overwhelming beyond measure.

I felt pretty good on Wednesday (likely from the steroids they were pumping into me on Tuesday) and then crashed on Thursday.  The fatigue was pretty bad though I remained thankful for fatigue being the major side effect.  I still tire very easily which I find to be very frustrating.

SIL will return home on Wednesday (weather gods willing) and then will come back for Round #3 of chemo the end of March.  I am going to try to power through Round #2 by myself in two weeks.  The effects are cumulative so there is a good chance of either worse fatigue or other side effects.  Yay.

Have to admit it has been nice to have company throughout this ordeal but I am, again, ready to have my space back.  So.Very.Ready.  Things have gone better than expected with SIL, she likes alone time, too and that works quite well.

I already spoke with my manager and decided to cut back my hours at work to part time.  There is simply no other way to make this work.  I cannot handle the stress of working anywhere near full time and my #1 priority now is getting healthy again.

And so we keep moving forward, mainly because there is really no other choice.   I remain thankful and grateful for the support of family and friends but I long to fade into obscure boredom again.