Keri's Breast Cancer Story: Halfway through the Second Round of Chemo

Doug's Intro: The following message comes at the end of our Halfway point for the second round of chemo the doctors prescribed. Most of Keri's messages to date have been uplifting and positive, but at this time the burden of Cancer, sickness, frustration, and just an overall "I want to be done" are starting to kick in.

Keri and I always tried our best to support one another during our good days and our bad, and there will be bad days. This round of Chemo was not supposed to happen. As you have read in prior Posts, we were suppose to be on the road to recovery and getting on in our lives and I think that realization finally caught up with the both of us as you can read below.

Keri states if perfectly when she says Cancer wasn't in our life picture, but when is it ever, all we can do is drive on, fight the battle, and rely on those who have been there from the beginning and those we meet along the way. There will be days of struggle and days of questions, be honest with one another and don't let things build up, talk about what's bothering you and let those you love and trust talk back, the only problem that can be solved is the problem that's identified.

Subject: Half way there

Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 1:02 PM

Hello All,

I kind of like how I can do this whole type one email thing and send it to like a million people. Sure does cut down on the arthritis in the hands.

Well, I had my second treatment yesterday. That makes me half way done. Two down two more to go. This one went about as well as the first one. A little different though.

Now with there being three weeks between treatments I get my blood count checked a week after the treatment at a check up and then now I get it checked right before the next treatment. So they checked my blood count before they gave me any drugs yesterday, which was a good thing.

My blood count was just getting out of normal and into low so the doctor lowered my dosage on some of the drugs so as to keep it from going too low. Of course if it does get too low they do have a shot they can give me, but that was what caused all the achyness last time and I'd like to avoid that as much as possible.

So other than lowering my dosage things seem to be the same as the first time. I still am not sleeping through these treatments so I worked on my craft that I can do in my lap. That helps make the time go by faster.

Doug still comes with me every time. He tries his hardest to make me laugh and keep things light. I'm so glad he does that. Otherwise it could be a very lonely and depressing experience. I was kind of sad yesterday and really not wanting to be there so it did work as well as usual, but everyone has their good and bad days.

This round seems to be following the same pattern in regards to side effects. I didn't really feel much after the first treatment, but get just one more treatment in and the side effects start barging in.