Symptoms already improving

Given the pre-medication before chemotherapy, I knew that today should still be a pretty decent day for me.  The pre-medication includes a 48-hour acting anti-nausea medication and a steroid to help with the nausea and swelling from the vicious attacking chemo drugs.  Unfortunately, the steroid gave me insomnia and my mind was going a million miles a minute about all sorts of clever ideas and things that needed to be completed around the house, you name it, I couldn't stop the energy, so at 3:30 in the am, I finally gave up and went downstairs and started writing some, facebooking (because that's always productive) and some reading.  I finally started to doze at 6 am, but had to get going by 8 to pickup my daughter, Kim, for our mother-daughter day to the Starbucks Roastery and lunch.

Despite my 2 hours of sleep, I awoke from my stupor and picked up my neuropathy-prevention supplements on my way to picking up Kim for our date.  Vitamin B6 and glutamine show some evidence of decreasing the risk of neuropathy (numbness, tingling, and nerve pain primarily in the hands/feet) from the Vinbla
stine.  So, I stopped at Super Supplements in Kenmore on my way to the University District and got these supplements.  Unfortunately, the dosing of glutamine is 6 times the usual dosing so the containers only held 12-20 days worth of powder, so I will reach out to Amazon to determine if they have a larger quantity (or Costco may have it).

So, how did my day go?  Surprisingly, I felt pretty decent after getting some coffee in me from the Roastery, so since the weather cleared, Kim and I decided to walk around Greenlake and look at our old home nearby before getting some lunch.  What I noticed most was that my breathing was a lot easier and I was coughing about 50% less than I did when I walked 3 miles with a friend earlier in the week.  It was truly amazing to me that within 24 hours, I could see that much improvement.  But, the pharmacist had told me that they can usually see visible lymph node decreases (in people who have more superficial lymph node swelling) within a few days of starting treatment.  In addition, my heart rate, which used to be in the 40's -50's had crept into the 70's-80's over the past couple months and today is back down to 53, so I think my heart is feeling relief as well.  This positive response was exactly what I was hoping to appreciate and provides hope that I may be able to increase my walking pace to a jog and possibly a run (albeit a short one) within a week or 2.  I will definitely heed the advice of my oncologist and cardiologist to be sure that I don't risk increasing toxicity to my heart, kidneys or liver by increasing my physical activity, but running almost always makes me feel better and I'm looking forward to increasing my strength to fight these bad cells!

Tomorrow is supposed to be the peak of my "bad symptoms" and then my blood counts will continue to drop as the week progresses - usually peaking about 10-14 days after the chemo treatment.  This means that I will need to be more cautious to avoid sick contacts and my fatigue levels may rise.  But, we'll pass that bridge when we get there.  For now, we'll praise God for the early response and relief and I want to thank all of you who are praying and sending all the positive thoughts.

To get through the hardest journey we need to take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping.  ~ Chinese Proverb

Here is Kim (my wonderful infusion RN from SCCA) administering doxorubicin (aka Adriamycin) to me.  It's beautiful red color can cause urine to turn red or orange but I think I was so well hydrated that I never saw this after my first infusion.