My Mom has officially made it to the halfway point of her chemotherapy treatments. Three rounds down and three more to go. She was elated to be halfway, but that excitement has been somewhat short lived knowing that she still has three more rounds to go. The effects are definitely cumulative so she is expecting the next three rounds to be much tougher than the first three. Her fatigue is increasing, "bouncing back" takes longer, and food sounds less and less appealing. She is managing to maintain her weight and, on most days, her positive attitude. She has also begun taking additional hydration treatments for an hour a couple times a week.
She was pretty sick during the most recent round of treatments and experienced her first bought with not being able to keep food down. I happened to be there when she got really nauseous after dinner one night. I decided she may want a wet washcloth for her face and forehead. After using the cloth I gave her, she said politely disappointed, "this is a cleaning rag". It turns out her cleaning rags are nicer than my nicest facecloths. It also turns out that even when feeling really really crummy, my Mom is maintaining every ounce of her classiness. This is also recognized by people outside of the family. My friend Calli and I accompanied my Mom to a hydration treatment. Afterward, Calli told me, "only your Mom could look that beautiful wearing only a scarf on her head".
An important note regarding the completion of the third round of chemotherapy... completing three rounds of all of the treatments they are giving her is a big (positive) deal. Specifically, the Platinum drug which they administer through IP is known to be very difficult to tolerate. The doctors warned that some women can't make it past a single treatment, all the while encouraging that taking this treatment has proven to be very beneficial.
A huge thank you to all of you for sending warm thoughts, helping hands and favors every time we turn around. It is so touching to see the thoughtfulness and very helpful to have the support.
I will send another e-mail update in a month or so. Check the blog site for more frequent, shorter updates. http://pamspipeline.blogspot.com/
With Kind Regards,
Abbie (and Kelli and Bruce too!)
p.s. just so you don't get worried about the familial care Mom is receiving, please know that the aforementioned cleaning rag was from a freshly laundered pile - so it really wasn't that bad - was it?
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