One Small Step for Nancy...

...one giant leap for her recovery. (I don't know. Maybe a bit corny. Maybe change it later before you publish it.)

So on my way home, in the middle of what seems to be coming a regular 90+ minute commute and an endless stream of Springsteen on my iPod, Nanc reported feeling "peppy." Now that's a new one. I can't remember her ever using the word peppy before. But hey, I am certainly not going to argue over the word choice. I'm tickled pink that she's "peppy." That means she's making progress.

You can hear it in her voice.

So, it may be a little thing, but it's pretty huge if you think about it a bit and put it into perspective over the last 5 months. She certainly wasn't feeling any too peppy back in the middle of July...

xoxo

A New Normal

I know, I know, it's been a while. Consider it a good thing, generally speaking. For me, I have been trying like mad to get caught up at work so I have not had too much time to sit and type. For Nanc, she thinks she should be feeling better by now at 4 weeks since her last treatment.

So what about this "new normal" thing? I heard it said that living with cancer, no matter where you are with it in terms of your treatment, your recovery, your whatever, you have to get used to the devil sitting on your shoulder - you have to make friends with it...

I'll let that sink in for a minute - I had to think about it for a while when I first heard it.

Right now, Nancy's biggest battle is with the fatigue and the neuropathy. So what exactly is peripheral neuropathy?

"Peripheral neuropathy describes damage to the peripheral nervous system, the vast communications network that transmits information from the brain and spinal cord (the central nervous system) to every other part of the body. Peripheral nerves also send sensory information back to the brain and spinal cord, such as a message that the feet are cold or a finger is burned. Damage to the peripheral nervous system interferes with these vital connections. Like static on a telephone line, peripheral neuropathy distorts and sometimes interrupts messages between the brain and the rest of the body.

"Because every peripheral nerve has a highly specialized function in a specific part of the body, a wide array of symptoms can occur when nerves are damaged. Some people may experience temporary numbness, tingling, and pricking sensations (paresthesia), sensitivity to touch, or muscle weakness."

I think I've mentioned a couple of times before that Nanc has been experiencing this for quite some time. Sometimes she can't even pet the dogs because it feels so weird. The difference is that now it seems to have rocketed to some new dimension that makes it difficult to button shirts, put on a necklace or stand in one place without wobbling. Try walking without any feeling in your toes sometime...

That pretty much describes it. They can't predict when chemo therapy induced neuropathy will reverse itself. the time it takes varies widely from one person to another. So we've been in touch with the pain team in terms of the medication for it and we just doubled her dosage and will see how that goes for now.

And colder weather has a way of magnifying it quite a bit. Sunday was a chilly day by LA standards - maybe 60 - and she was in quite a bit of pain versus a day like today at 85 or so.

And the fatigue. I am almost jealous how she can sleep 12 hours at a clip. I haven't done that since staying up for 2 days straight many, many years ago. But each day lately, it seems to get just a tad better.

So anyway, we had an appointment at Cedars today for her first port flush. You need to access and flush the port so so it doesn't get clogged up. Kind of like an oil change which needs to get done once a month. We stopped by the infusion center and said hi to a few of the nurses. They all commented on how good she looked. So, no matter how she feels, the experts say she is looking very good....

I happen to agree with them.

xoxo

Hair Debate Rages On...

Not that I want to down play the fact that things are changing - don't get me wrong. But Nanc and I seem to completely disagree on exactly how much hair has come back so far. One thing we can certainly agree on however, is the fact that the going is definitely slow. Today is day 19 since her last treatment and the longest she has gone since June without an infusion. So, one would expect things to change, even if just a little.

However, I am just not sensing the same hair growth that Nanc is saying that she feels. Now I am just as much an idealist as the next person and I have admitted that it is softer than it has been since she shaved it. But, (and I know she would tell you differently, but once again I have the keyboard,) it's awfully hard to see...

Hair debate aside, the neuropathy lingers with some small changes. Last night she mentioned that her hands felt better but the feet still hurt quite a bit. That makes her unsteady on her feet and leaves her legs weak. She got down on a knee in the pharmacy the other day and collapsed to both knees and had a hard time getting up. Sure makes shopping a real adventure...

She's been complaining of some pain in her abdomen which from her description is the peritoneal area where they dumped all that chemo - 12 treatments but who's counting? We will watch that closely over the next couple of days and see if it continues. Ipubrofen seems to help - Aleve doesn't touch it.

Anyone want a nearly full bottle of Aleve, cheap??

xoxo