Ups and downs

"Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him!"
Psalm 62:5

First of all, thank you to all of you that prayed for my round 3 hospitalization. I was able to tolerate all of the the treatment without any problems and was home on Saturday morning! The first few days of this round were going so well, I think that I let myself get away from the reality of what chemo does to my body. Today I am tired. It is hard for me to go from feeling so good to not being able to get up and do things for myself in such a short time. On last night's blog, my mom mentioned my nausea and although that has been better today, my headaches have not stopped and we think it is due to the nausea medication. The neuropathy in my hands has also increased (which is common with one of the chemo meds I got this round and will get again on Friday) which is incredibly frustrating to me and it limits a lot of what I can open, hold, etc. These are the down times that I knew would come with chemo, but today after church I have really thought about how lucky I am. Not every leukemia patient gets to be treated at a place like MD Anderson, not every leukemia patient gets to be told that their form of leukemia is treatable, not every leukemia patient goes into remission after their first round of chemo, and not every leukemia patient has the support and love of so many people. Really my list could go on and on, but I think that you get the point.

Tomorrow begins my outpatient portion of chemo for this cycle. I will get my neulasta injection at 11:00 (a wonderful medication that stimulates my white blood cells) then on to my lumbar puncture and rituximab. Doing chemo outpatient is quite a bit different than inpatient (maybe because we aren't best friends with the nurses) so I am always a bit more hesitant. Lumbar punctures are not something that I look forward to (not that anyone would...) and it will be a long day at the hospital so your continued prayers are greatly appreciated. Please also continue to pray for the "down times" when I am not feeling well and frustrated with what is happening in my body. I know that all this needs to happen for me to be better, but sometimes it overwhelms me. However, I remind myself of another reason I am lucky... most leukemia patients have a 3 year treatment period not a 5-8 month treatment period like I do. August here I come!

I also wanted to thank everyone involved in the blood drive organized by Girl Scout Troop 14164 along with selling shirts, lemonade, and baked goods. I cannot begin to express how much it means to me to have people giving blood in my honor. Seeing first hand the difference a transfusion makes has really opened my eyes to how important giving blood is. You truly save lives!