WEEKS 11 & 12: The Effects of Chemo - or - "How to Lose 10 Pounds in One Week"

Like I had been told, the first day or two after my first Chemo treatment, I felt okay. By Sunday, the "bone pain" that Laurie told me about kicked in. That was kind of miserable. I particularly felt it in my hips, my spine, and my jaw, but my legs bones were feeling it too. Then Monday the "queasies" got going. They sent me home with various nausea medications. I took some, but not a lot, cause it was more like a stomach ache. So I took a lot of Pepto Bismol, which I found wasn't very effective. For me, one of the worst side effects of the Chemo was the "metal mouth". That made everything taste bad, including water. It was so hard to eat or drink. It's not like it ruined my appetite, because I was still feeling hungry (starved, in fact). But everything tasted so bad, it almost made me feel nauseas to eat. I had a couple of days where I sat on the couch and ate nothing but soda crackers. Of course diarrhea had kicked in, and that made things worse. Between that and water tasting so bad, I know I let myself get pretty dehydrated. So in the span of about a week, I managed to lose 10 pounds. Very effective, but not a diet I would recommend!

The next weekend Collin was graduating with his Computer Engineering degree from BYU. Even though I was still feeling rather "puny" I really wanted to go to that. I was past due anyway to get some extra saline in my expander, so I made an appointment at the Huntsman to have that done on the way down. I had been having problems with an "open wound" on my incision scar that I knew should be looked at also. On April 22, we drove to Salt Lake, and stopped at the Huntsman for my appointment. When my nurse Vickie looked at my little gaping hole, she told me she couldn't add to the expander with that, for fear it would just tear it open more. So she gave me a prescription for Silver Sulfadiazine cream, and told me to put that on twice a day, rinsing out the old cream with water each time, and covering it with gauze. I'd already been babysitting that stupid wound for two weeks trying to get it to heal with no luck. Now I had even more babysitting to do! I was so sick of the stupid thing. I was getting to the point where I wished they would just sew it up, and be done with it. But I knew that's not practical, cause they would just close the bacteria up in there, and risk causing infection. I guess I wouldn't want that!

The next day, April 23, Collin became an official college graduate. It makes me so proud to have my 4 oldest kids all be college graduates. Just "my baby" Chase is left to go. He is currently working toward a Graphic Design degree at BYU. Collin is also a lucky enough guy that he already found a job - at L3 Communications in Salt Lake! I'm happy that they're staying close enough that we'll get to see them and that baby boy Landon a lot. The rest of my kids are starting to shift to farther away places. Conrad & Jamie will be leaving Rexburg, Idaho this fall, so Conard can start Medical School in Glendale, Arizona. Tasha & Jake will be leaving Logan, Utah, probably for Amarillo Texas where she'll go to Radiation Therapy school. So - with Clint , Ashlie & the 4 boys in Tucson, that puts most of the kids and grandkids far out of arms length. Makes me sad!

Back to happiness - here I am with my new graduate son, Collin, & his little Landon.