Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Enjoying the sunshine and getting better....

i left my electronic plastic room key in the direct sun for 15 minutes and it warped too much to be usable. it is hot out here! we are having a nice time. treatment seems to make me queasy and tired, but nothing like "real" chemo. We have settled into a routine. steve goes for a walk with Butters in a local park with Abraham, the walking buddy from Syria he talks to about world events. On non-fasting days, I eat and then we head to treatment for 7 a.m. On chemo days, like this morning, I fast and arrive hungry. After a bout 20 minutes of saline and magnesium drip, they inject the insulin through port. Lucinda wanted to know the dosage. It is 24,000 of humalog, for whatever that means. Hope i got that number right. After 15 minutes or so, she tests my blood sugar. Once it hits 50, she quickly injects the chemo and I drink juice and start to eat. Its not a good feeling to let your blood sugar get that low, I have to say. My hands were shaking as I started eating, but it lasts just a while. After this, I moved to the injection room to sit with everyone else and get my ionic foot bath and foot massage (yum!) while getting my multi vitamin treatment through the port. today I also did the hypergravity machine. this is a very weird experience of being vibrated very quickly as you stand on the machine. By keeping your knees slightly bent and leaning forward onto the balls of your feet, the vibration doesn't go to your head, which feels better. SImply standing on the machine is strenuous, its hard to explain why. Anyway, it is supposed to increase lymphatic drainage, which makes some sense, since that circulatory system is activated mainly through muscle movement. Based on Steve's research, we have decided to do IV vitamin C 3 x week instead of once. It seems, if nothing else, to make me feel better (although it can also make me nauseous.) I had a coaching call with a client and have gotten Mary BEth onto the task of setting up regular appointments with everyone I coach. Coaching a few clients a day in the afternoons is very do-able. It is good for me to keep the connection, and I hope good for my clients! ANyway, we are off to Wal-Mart for vitamins and supplies, as well as to fill a prescription for an antibiotic that will hopefully discourage the cancer going into my bones. Good idea! We have been having a wonderful time with Steve's cousin Lisa and Aunt Lucinda. What a great couple of women they are, and watching them bask in the desert sun and brun away their Seattle dampness is fun. They both love it here! We met two of Lisa's dear friends for drinks after a lovely dinner in Scottsdale last evening. Tonight, they'll come here to meet Butters and we'll have dinner nearby. We'll be sad to see them go, and hope to persuade them to come back again!

2 comments:

  1. You sound great, and I'm so glad. I'm curious about the fasting. I read recently that fasting puts healthy cells on protective mode but cancer cells don't get the memo, so they are weaker when the chemo starts. Is that the theory your doctors are working from or is there another reason?

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  2. Glad to know you're having a lot of fun between treatments!

    Always thinking of you and wishing you all the best!
    Fe

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