Round one is over...

Good news and less-than-good news to report this weekend. The good part is that Jennifer’s first ever session with chemo-therapy is over. The final dosage was administered Saturday. One dosage of chemo was a three-day dosage and the second was a six-day dosage. They were done simultaneously. Jenn didn’t have too much nausea during the week, but she did have some today. Another side effect is extreme exhaustion and a nasty fever. The fever let up for most of today, and because I was driving back to Timmins, I haven’t talked to her to find out how she has been in the past few hours. Luckily, the chemo has NOT affected her hair too much… (Knock on wood!). But the next week or so will be a time of rebuilding her strength and getting her body systems back to normal. Then there will be testing to find out how well the first session of chemo worked. Jenn says it is likely that a second session of chemo-therapy will be done just to be sure. The nurse said that Jenn’s white blood platelets were almost non-existent today. A member of the med-team explained that’s not good because we all need those platelets otherwise we could suffer unusual internal bleeding, heavy bruising and life-threatening nosebleeds. On the other hand, it means the chemo – cocktail is doing the job of destroying all the cancer cells along with the platelets. So today Jenn was getting a transfusion of new blood platelets, an I.V. solution to hydrate her and replace her electrolytes, another solution of anti-biotics to fight the fever, muscle relaxants to fight the spasms, and anti-nausea drugs. At one point today, I counted six bags of fluids on the I.V. pole! Jenn also had no appetite last night or today. Poor me, I had to eat her chicken and rice at lunchtime….. Yecchhh, not gonna offer to do that again! It was grrreat to spend time with Jenn and talk and get caught up. It was not great to see her struggling with the exhaustion and discomfort. But Jenn says she is going to get through this. She really loves the encouragement she gets from all the cards and e-mail care messages. And sometimes if she can’t answer the phone, it’s because she is sleeping or is not able to reach the phone.