Can't catch a break.

My weekend was pretty much normal. Matt and I met my brother, Bryan, and sister-in-law, Melony, at Fuzzy's Tacos in Fort Worth on Saturday. Best. Tacos. Ever. I promised I'd do this: Fuzzy's FTW! Now on to other news...

I had another check up today with my oncologist. I seem to be pretty healthy...I mean, despite the whole I've-got-cancer-thing. My vitals were good: temp: 98.8, BP: 128/82, pulse: 104. Each time you go in for a check up, they give you a "side effects" sheet to fill out. It lists all the possible side effects and you circle "yes" or "no". Then they take your blood...not out of the port this time, but from the arm. Another nurse calls you back and you give her the side effects sheet. After giving it the once over, she asks questions about the yes's and any other information that might be pertinent. One of the first questions she asks me is, "How's your appetite?" You know how I answered her?? My stomach growled. Yeah...on cue. Couldn't of planned that any better. Of course we laughed and I turned about 5 shades of red. A mere "Oh, fine" was all I could muster up after that.

After the nurse, we get taken back to another room to wait for my oncologist. My blood work is so good that she reduced my Neupogen shots down to 7 instead of 8, making the last one for this time last night. Yea! She checked all my lymphnodes...all of them seem fine.

Next we met with my radiation oncologist's nurse. She gave me a whole book called "Radiation Therapy and You". This lists the different types of radiation and all the side effects. Wow. I thought chemo was overwhelming. I didn't think there was going to be much to radiation. I was totally off. The side effects are similar, if not worse. Unfortunately, since it's concentrated on my neck, most of my side effects will be mouth and throat related. Translation: I'll have trouble eating for the couple of weeks of radiation. This, in addition to my body working overtime to heal the radiation spot, will most likely lead to weight loss. Apparently your body works so hard to heal that spot, that you're supposed to eat high calorie, high protein foods to keep your weight stable. I've been living off of Instant Breakfast on most days after chemo...guess I'll have to get another supply. I know they have to list all the side effects and there's only a slight possibility of getting them. But, with chemo, I've experienced almost all of them on and off. Maybe not at the same time. Sometimes worse than others, but they've all been hanging around and making appearances. Fatigue is a side effect of radiation, too. I'm meeting with the doctor later this week so I'm sure I'll get more information from him.

We have an official date for my next PET scan: 9-19. I'll find out from there whether the cancer is gone or still there and how many more chemo treatments I'll have. I have my next chemo this Friday, completing 2 whole cycles!

Now I'm beat. Learning new information, in this case about radiation, always makes for an emotional day. I'm worn out and my body is telling me to eat cookies. :) Must listen to body...

Thanks and goodnight! :)