Drugs:

• Prevacid
• Dexamethosone
• Aloxi, instead of Zofran for nausea (longer-lasting to cover me for the weekend)
• Lasix (diuretic)
• Saline drip
• Etoposide and Cisplatin chemo
• Benadryl (to help sleep)
• Compazine over the weekend

Nurse: Charlotte

Prior to Friday’s treatment, I finally got a good night’s sleep thanks to some Benadryl and Jimmy not waking up at all. Also got an unprompted “That’s what she said” joke out of the receptionist this morning when describing how to self-validate parking (“Just insert there.”). That was kind of awesome.

Didn’t gain any more weight today, but I’m still 10lbs up over baseline. I’ve also completely lost my voice. Probably due to, oh I don’t know, pumping my body full of toxic poison all week. Just a hunch.

So, our plumbing issues got significantly worse. The entire upstairs bathroom needs to be re-piped, which should happen on Monday thanks to a lot of rescheduling by Lifeline Plumbing (everyone cross all your fingers that this gets done). That made the weekend a lot tougher, since our other bathroom is literally in the farthest corner of our house from our bedroom. I know, first world problems, but it’s a huge pain in the ass when you’re waking up all night to go to the bathroom and stairs are the last thing you want to deal with. The giant hole in my kitchen ceiling started feeling like a metaphor for my life right now. Not a good feeling.

Speaking of not good feelings, after treatment, the mental impact of all of this really started to hit me. I wasn’t prepared for it at all. The combination of steroids, chemo drugs, stress, and frustration just all hit me at once and I started getting some pretty wild mood swings. It’s hard to call them swings exactly, since they never swung over to the positive direction. Mostly just mood troughs.

The rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful. Lots of down moments, but also a couple positives. I spent some time in the hammock listening to Hawaiian music pretending I was back on our Maui honeymoon. I managed to go for a couple walks around the block. Got some great couch time in watching the Cubs.

Teddy got to have a fun day and sleepover with his cousins on Saturday. We were a little worried he was going to freak out at night, but it sounds like everything went great. Soccer, Chili’s, dance parties, and sleeping in “nests” in Calvin’s room. Brother-in-law Chris brought over some dinner for us Saturday night as well.

My parents came back down yesterday afternoon, which is always nice. They’ve been a huge help so far with driving, taking care of the kids, cooking, cleaning, etc. The biggest lesson I’ve learned in all this so far is it would be impossible to face cancer alone. This is truly an “all hands on deck” type of situation, and I’ve really appreciated all the support so far. When you sit in the chemo ward everyday, you notice some people are mostly doing it on their own.

Pain/Side Effects on a Scale of 0 to Mel Gibson’s Final Scene in “Braveheart”:

Day 4 gets a 4. Major mental issues. The weekend gets a 2.5.