Visitors! and Chemo #4 - Sept 23, 2022 (imported from Facebook)

Hey everyone! I know I haven't updated in a while, but it's because I've been feeling pretty good. I feel yucky the first week after chemo with the nausea and achy legs, but once that passes, I feel pretty much like my normal self. 

 I had some wonderful visitors last weekend, Cari Reed and Diana Black Shay . These two are friends starting from middle school and continuing beyond. The kind of friends that it doesn't matter the time apart, you pick it back up immediately where you left off. We gabbed, laughed, ate, walked some near Snoqualmie Falls, and went to a Wallaby and Kangaroo farm. The day of activities did wear me out, so I rested after they left. But that's ok. It was a good tired. 

 Chemo #4 went well today. I have two left - Oct 14 and Nov 4th🤩🎉 

Then they will run tests, do some scans, and see if the cancer is all gone. Obviously it can come back, so they will put me on a maintenance drug (not sure which, but a parp inhibitor) after the last chemo to keep it away ☺️ 

 My bloodwork today looked great. They are all amazed that I haven't had to have any extra shots of things so far. My white blood count looked good. The absolute neutrophils count they watch closely went from .92 (almost too low) 11 days ago to 2.06 (good for a chemo patient) today. So my immune system has recovered. It might drop back down between treatments, so I'll go for another blood draw in 10 days and check it again. The lab is running a blood test tonight on the cancer marker, Cancer Antigen 125. 

On July 11, before surgery and chemo, it was 624 😱 Normal range is 0-38.1... 
 On Aug 12, after surgery and 1 chemo, it was 71.6 😍 I'm hoping for closer to normal range this time. 

I'll comment and update this post when I get that result. Update: the Cancer Antigen 125 test result just came back (10pm) and it is 12.4 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 

It is in the lower part of the normal range. So I'm guessing this means the surgery and chemo worked and killed it. I'll still need to take that maintenance drug, but for now, it looks like I'm good 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 

 William Wen comes home on Oct 3rd, so things will get back to somewhat normal then. The difference will be that Jack is in Taiwan... He seems to be enjoying it. I'm hoping to hear how classes are going soon. 

 Beautiful Van Gogh inspired hat from another friend Susan Danza Popok and Doug Popok

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