Well, it has happened. This day has been on my calendar for months! I finished my last chemo treatment today. In spite of the cold I have been fighting, we were able to go ahead. The white blood cell number the doctor looks at to decide if your body can handle chemo is called the absolute neutrophils. They will not let you have chemo if your number is below 1000. Today mine was the lowest it has been at 1300. Three weeks ago it was at 2600. Tomorrow I will get a neulasta shot which will help stimulate the bone marrow to produce more white blood cells.
The treatment went about the same as the previous ones. I get Benadryl each time to help fight the side effects of the chemo drugs. I was thinking about that yesterday and since it is an antihistamine, I was hoping it would help with my stuffiness. And it has! What a nice side effect. My throat is a little tender right now. Probably because it was already irritated by my cold. So I've started with gargling salt and soda water. And I've already experienced a couple of really intense hot flashes. It's going to be an interesting couple of days.
The staff all asked me if I was going to ring the bell at the end of treatment today. There is a bell on the wall in the infusion room that patients ring at the end of their last chemo. I have never been there when someone has done that, so I had never seen the results of ringing it. When I rang the bell, the room broke out in cheers and a nurse handed me a bottle of sparkling cider! They could even hear the bell out in the waiting room. When I left, one of the patients in the waiting room congratulated me. What a nice tradition!
So the plan going forward is this. I will have a PET scan in about 5 weeks which will show what the chemo has done. Hopefully there will be no active cancer cells left. Then I will have check ups every 3 months for the first year. I asked the doctor what they look for. I didn't have any symptoms to begin with and what would they find with just a checkup. He said they look for swelling of lymph glands and that they will probably do a CAT scan at about 6 months. Then check ups twice a year for the second year and yearly after that.
Ken asked an interesting question when we were talking with the doctor today. He wondered what would have happened to a patient like me 50-75 years ago. The answer was scary! There were no effective imaging techniques then and the cancer wouldn't have been detected until it was late stage. The doctor said that since the cancer was on the liver, that the liver would be overwhelmed and fail. The aggressiveness of this cancer would have killed someone in months - not years. I'm so thankful to have the treatment available to me and to live in a time that they can find the cancer so early.
Thanks for all your texts and prayers, and thanks for celebrating with me. Look what was on my front porch this time! Thanks Diane.
I am thankful for:
- Drugs (again). Where would I be without them?
- I am through with chemo!
- I have a wonderful husband who gives me priesthood blessings and encourages me every day.
- My friends and family who show so much love, support and concern and offer prayers in my behalf.
- The staff in the infusion room who take such good care of the patients.
- The lessons Ken and I have learned from this experience. I don't know all the reasons why this might have happened, but there is always something to be learned from adversity. I love this scripture found in Alma 32:21. "Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true."
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