Post Chemo 11, Post Christmas and What's Next

Merry Christmas!  Happy Boxing Day!  Is anybody still upright out there?  I am most certainly not.  After my final, bell-ringing chemo session on Christmas Eve, we headed home where I laid down for a little, showered and washed (and lost some of) my hair, and teed up some Trader Joe's hors d'oeuvres with cheese and shrimp for CCG and her family to swing by for a toast to the end of chemo.  It was a lovely, quiet evening.

We read "The Night Before Christmas" and sent the girls to bed.  Played Santa.  Did I sleep after?  No.  I did not cook through the night as I thought I would.  I played mahjong on my phoned, blogged, and went through photos of the past 4 months.  I finally succeeded with sleep around 4:45am and woke at 8:00pm on Christmas morning.  Fueled by steroids, we did the whole Christmas Day - presents, coffee, clean up, cooking, setting tables, hosted friends, ate and ate and ate, and finally, at 6:00pm, I was done.  Cooked.  Bid everyone good night and went to bed.  Slept through the night until around 4:30am, so I got up and went to my 5:30am workout.  Just because.  It wasn't pretty but I did it.  And then came home and napped from 8:00 until 11:00.

I'm a mess. The steroids are gone (and hopefully, for good!) and I'm a puddle of chemo drugs.  My arms are weirdly white right now - assuming because I'm anemic - and I feel lousy.  I promised my husband that I would lay low this next week and let my body start to rebuild.  

Swing by and say hi if you are around.  I'll be hanging.

What's next?  I have an appointment with my medical oncologist next Monday.  I have a bunch of questions:  When can I taper off of taking gabapentin?  When can I stop rinsing my mouth out? When does my immunity go back to normal?  

I have my first Herceptin and Perjeta solo infusion on January 2nd and those will continue every 3 weeks until October 2025.  I've decided to have those infusions through my chest port at least through radiation.  I might consider having those done 'under the skin' - an 8 minute slow injection in my thigh rather than an hour through the port - at a later time but for now, I'd like to keep things status quo.

On January 6th, I have my 'mapping' appointment with radiology.  I guess 'mapping' takes a while - it's the plan for the radiation rays to treat my chest region.  I'm not only having my chest area radiated, but the entire 'lymph node chain' on my left side.  Good times.  That process starts on January 21st and is 5 days a week for 20 rounds.

Until then, I heal from chemo.  I hope I heal quickly.  My husband and I have quietly replanned that cancelled trip out to California between mapping and starting radiation - 12 days in Carmel.  I might have been a bit aggressive with the golf plans, but we can change them.  It will be nice to be in 60 degree weather and take long walks either along the rocky coast or on a golf course.  And just have a change of scenery.  I can't wait.  xo J


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