Kris, Dave and the Lumps: End of Chemo round 2

First a newsflash, I've started a rudimentary blog which likely won't get
any less rudimentary but, will have more content as time goes on. The URL
for the blog is: http://krisanddavehart.blogspot.com/ feel free to go there
and post comments. My hope with the blog is that I will get in the habit
of using it like a kind of journal, posting on a near daily basis my
observations of what's going on. This will lend itself to more accuracy
versus the current method. What is the current method you ask? Well,
since I don't want to hit folks with daily emails, I wait a few days,
nearly a week, and then try to remember what happened nearly a week ago,
usually getting the facts right from a high level point of view, but, not
quite right. This way, I can post on a daily basis to the blog, and then
post to this list once a week. For this note, I have it set up in revers,
one of the recipients of this email is the blog in question which should
automatically post this very note as the inaugural message.

Thursday, 5-June-2008
Got home and Kris was asleep... what y'all don't know is that Kris is a
very light sleeper so this worried me. Turns out she wasn't feeling good
(mostly nausea) so she took a Adavan, which is a variation on Valium, which
basically knocked her out... the downside is that she felt the need to take
it, the upside is that she got lots of rest for taking the Adavan.

Friday, 6-June-2008
Went to see the Surgeon. The wound is no better, no worse: his
observation. Which, considering we are going through chemotherapy is not
bad. So, we'll see him again next Friday. Kris is doing ok but, her hands
are still a bit pink.

Saturday, 7-June-2008
Felt good enough to go out for... Chicken Noodle soup at Perkins. Odd what
you can get excited about. Went to the store afterwords to pick up some
supplies and Kris got cold... very cold... and disoriented, while we were
in the store. We're still not sure what happened, but, we hurried home and
got her warmed up. It was in the 70s out, and we drove home with the seat
heater on and the car heater on high! Hands are still pink but, again
not... really... sore. One thing of note is that her face feels, in her
words, sunburnt. Kris has been applying moisturizer to her skin three
times a day to combat the problems brought on by the Xeloda. When she put
moisturizer on her face, it 'stung' like it was a sun burn... and trust me,
she's not been in the sun!

Sunday, 8-June-2008
Kris took her last dose of Antibiotics today and was feeling quite a bit
better... good enough that she had a Microwave dinner: chicken and rice!
What a treat (yes, she's very bored with what she can eat). Note that all
of this time she's still not... well, regular, but, things seem to be
improving on that... um... end (pun unintended, but, kind of unavoidable).
Hands are red... and a bit more sore. We are concerned but since she's
only got one more day of Xeloda, decided to watch and wait.

Monday, 9-June-2008
Feeling good enough for Chicken and Rice, this time home made... did not go
over well. Not sure why the other went over ok. Good news is that Monday
night was Kris' last dose of Xeloda for this round.

Tuesday, 10-June-2008
Saw Dr. Moran today and he said that we are going to stop the Xeloda for
now. Kris' hands were red today... really red. However, they are still
not as red as the Friday when she couldn't open a car door for the pain in
her hands. Again, they are not as sore as before either. She's also had
diarrhea pretty much the whole time of her chemotherapy this round... even
including the time she was on the BRAT diet. Dr. Moran wants us to be off
of the Xeloda until she is regular and her skin is cleared up. Once she's
recovered, then he'll put her back on Xeloda but, we'll do it in reverse of
the norm: start low, and work our way up to tolerance. Because of this:
Kris is looking forward to a big juicy burger come Friday... or something
with lots of flavor and comfort. :)