8-14-09 Day Before Second First Chemo

Dr. Barry Brooks has given us his personal assurance that I will not get sick tomorrow on this cocktail of Herceptin & Abraxane he'll stir up in his cauldron. I plan to tell him that I know where he lives (you can find property by going to DCAD.org.) He lives in University Park in Dallas, which isn't the swankiest neighborhood in Dallas, but it will certainly do. So if I get sick we'll be visiting the good doctor at his house in University Park. Probably has a gated entrance.

My liver has been hurting me today, I took 2 of the pills he gave me for nausea. It just appears that my liver is getting more tender each day. We'll see what my liver enzymes are this blood test.

David took the large bandage off Wednesday night so you can see the incision. There are little pieces of surgical tape holding the sutures together. It is like the exact same incision as she did last time, nice neat little stitches in an upside down smiley face. This time the port is staying with me.

We go to MCD Texas Oncology tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. to do blood work and start the IVs running. I figure if we're lucky we'll be out by 4:30 to 5:00. I'm hoping to see some improvement immediately once the drugs hit the cancer cells. That may be wishful thinking on my part, but if I had a wish it would be that this would hit the cells with the HER2/neu coating on them lickety-split and start killing that thing.

My hair dresser, Melissa, called today to see what I was doing. It's been about 3 months since I've been to see her. I told her my news and she was just sick. Don't know if I'll go back to her or razor it off myself. It was very hard on her to have to shave my head last time.

Interesting at work now. We have news employees who aren't familiar with all of Chapter 1, so it is all new to them. Some of my jokes that I make about it make them back up because they've never been around somebody this close to see what they go through. I don't want to scare them or gross them out, but I do want them to ask questions and understand that my talk and my writing are coping mechanisms for us. Laughter makes all things bearable.

I spoke to a neighbor tonight on Sandy's walk, and her reaction was, "God is going to cure you." I told her that God may not 'cure' me of this attack on my earthly body. BUT God is going to carry me through every step of the way. We just have to listen for him and trust in his guidance. God still provides.