Done

Traci is done with radiation.  Done with chemo.  DONE WITH CANCER!  Hooray!!! 

Done with Chemo!!!

Yesterday Traci finished her eighth and final round of chemo.  HOORAY!!  And now she has a 4 week break before starting radiation.  Join me in celebrating this fantastic milestone.  Go sis!

3/4 Done

I've had the good fortune to spend some time in Arizona with my sis and lemme tell ya, she looks great.  Honestly, you wouldn't know she's battling cancer.  I even got to go to her last chemo appointment.  She's now 3/4 done with chemo!  Only 2 more treatments left and then she'll begin radiation.  I'm just amazed at her energy and attitude.  I guess at this point I was expecting the treatments to be taking more of a toll.   Heck, she's even cooking us dinner and chasing my preschooler on the playground when it should be the other way around.  I'm sure it's not easy but as usual, she doesn't complain.  Not too much longer and she'll be able to announce the end of all of these treatments!

Round 3

I confess, I'm doing a lousy job at keeping up this blog.  It's one of the few things I can do for my sister from so far away and as such I want to do a good job.  But Traci is a warrior who just never complains.  I mean, NEVER.  I'm quite certain that any ache or pain would be the source of paragraphs of whining if I were in her shoes.  But that's not her style and as such I find it difficult to tell you anything other than "she's doing great!" 

So...she's doing great.  The last round of chemo hit her a bit harder than the first two.  Since the effects are cumulative, this wasn't unexpected.  With each round, they try to overcome the side effects (primarily nausea) by tweaking some meds (not the chemo but the other meds).  This time they increased her steroid dose hoping that might help but instead she was still nauseous and didn't have the luxury of sleeping through it.  Needless to say, she won't let them try that again!

Traci goes in tomorrow for her final round of this particular chemo cocktail.  After a 2-3 week break, she will begin the next set of 4 rounds of a different protocol.

Spoke too soon

I got an email from Traci this morning and she in fact has started losing her hair.  So they shaved it down to a buzz cut on Sunday and she is sporting some stylish hats now.

Round 2

Last Wednesday Traci went in for her 2 chemo treatment.  Things were much quicker and when I texted her at 11:30, she was already home.  That afternoon the nausea set in again and she went to bed early to try to sleep through the worst of it.  On Thursday she returned to work for a half day before going in for her Neulasta shot.  This time they suggested that she take Aleve instead of Advil to help prevent the intense headaches.  Fortunately it worked!  The other good news is that Traci hasn't lost her hair yet.  She is at an American Cancer Society beauty class tonight to learn some tricks from makeup to wigs to scarf tying for when she becomes bald and beautiful!

Neulasta side effect

Well, the Neulasta shot to boost her immune system and protect her from infection also caused some major headaches.  That lasted the weekend through Tuesday unfortunately.  But since then she's been feeling good!