Two Chemo Treatments Down!

I finished my second chemo treatment on Saturday around 5pm, and I was able to go home on Sunday around 3pm. It was just... you know... awful, but I'm feeling MUCH better today. It's really difficult to describe how chemo makes you feel. I mean, you have the nausea and the discomfort, possibly some headaches or pain. Whatever, but the real terrible thing is that even when all of that is under control (which usually means you are so medicated you can't see straight)... you still feel, just gross. That feeling FINALLY went away this morning when I woke up, so praise the Lord! This round of chemo was definitely a lot harder on me than the first time, which I imagine is a pattern typical to chemo. However, I am hoping and praying that this is the LAST round of chemo before my stem cell transplant. We won't know for sure until I do my next PET scan, which should be happening in the next couple of weeks. So please pray for a clean scan because that means that my cancer is gone (well, at least for now), and they can proceed with the stem cell transplant to KEEP it gone.

I'm not exactly sure when they will start the transplant, but they are hoping to do the collection on Friday of this week. I go in on Thursday for them to check my blood counts and see if they are at the optimum point for collection, and if they are... Then Friday morning I will have a temporary line placed. They seemed sketchy about where that will go... neck, chest, arm? But I'm sure they'll let us know beforehand. And then they will start collecting that day. It takes about 4-6 hours to collect, and they just hook me up to a machine and I watch movies or knit or stare at the wall until they're done. Hopefully I collect all in one day, but if they can't get enough stem cells, then I will go back each day after until they have enough. So wish me luck! I'm focusing my blood cells and letting them know what's up. They also have me doing Neupogen shots every day (yeah... my mom is giving me two shots at home everyday. Super fun.), so that should help boost by blood count as well. Wish me luck this week, and I'll give an update about how the collection goes!

P.S.- If you are reading this, let me know! Comment, make a google account and follow the blog, or send me a text saying hey. I would really appreciate it :) I want to make sure I'm not just writing this for myself haha.