My Ovarian Cancer Journey

Busy morning here at the cancer center. They have lots of patients to fit in from the two days off last week. So they actually accessed my port in the lab, drew my blood for testing, and then I went back to the waiting room to sit. Took about the normal hour to get the blood tests back before we could start chemo. White blood count was a little low, blood pressure was a little high, but not enough to prevent chemo... Got the pre-meds and then chemo. Took a nap during chemo because of the Benadryl. Wil picked up lunch while I was napping :) Noodles, tofu and eggplant... Finished up by 1 and headed home. So there about 4 hours total. Rested at home, but no more naps for the day. They haven't been giving me that one anti-nausea pill that causes me to zonk out the whole afternoon... Had a tea while sitting and reading at home. The tag on it said: "Be fearless; know that all will be provided at the right time." Good omen I think... Woke up this morning to my CA 125 result - 30...

 Its Sunday night, getting ready for bed.  Chemo should be tomorrow, cycle 3 infusion 1, so 3 drugs... We should also be testing the CA 125 blood marker to see if the chemo is working. I've been feeling pretty good, but that doesn't tell us if the cancer is still here or not... The blood marker is the best way to know until we do another scan... Getting everything ready for chemo tomorrow  - ice packs for my hands and feet so I hopefully don't get neuropathy - bag with snacks and things to do if I'm awake I'll post after tomorrow, if not tomorrow night then on Tuesday.

 Hey everyone. So its Sunday morning. I had chemo this past Monday, did the Granix shots Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday... Then I had a follow-up appointment with my oncologist on Friday. Busy week. Here is the update... Chemo went fine, no issues. It was the 2nd infusion of the 2nd cycle, so 2 drugs instead of all 3. They didn't give me the one pre-med that makes me tired in the afternoon, but they did give me Benadryl because of my reaction to the CARBO now... That makes me snooze during chemo, so I got my nap while getting my drugs... The chemo just really gives me nausea, but I can deal with it, and they gave me some meds for it too. But the chemo also kills my white blood cells, so thats why we need do do these Granix shots every time after chemo. I'm getting used to the Granix shots and how they affect me. Wil is doing a great job giving me the shots too... I'm taking Claritin every day - its supposed to help with the bone pain from the Granix shots and chemo. I als...

So I know I need to update the past few weeks... I promise to get better with more timely updates 🥰 Just some general info: I've been having lots of problems with my white blood count this time with chemo. It would dip last year with chemo, but not enough to cause a problem. This time I've had to be given Granix to increase my white blood cell production. My ongoing chemo schedule is 2 weeks on, 1 week off. I'm going to start calling them cycle X, infusion 1 or 2... Sometimes because of holidays or whatever, we need to adjust days, so it might not always be the correct # day for chemo... The chemo drugs I'm getting each week are as follows. They are splitting the CARBO dose between the two days since I have a reaction to it  Infusion 1: Bevacizumab CARBOplatin Gemcitabine Infusion 2: CARBOplatin Gemcitabine Nov 3 - it was the day we finally get another infusion of chemo in. It was technically cycle 2, day 1. Even though it was late. The labs looked good, so we went ahe...

 Hey everyone. I have been keeping everyone informed about my ovarian cancer journey on FB, but not everyone is on FB... So I've decided to create a blog. I'll copy things over from FB and then share a link to this over there for people reading going forward.  I've not written a blog before, so this will be an experience for me. Who knows, maybe it will turn into something therapeutic and I create a blog for other aspects of my life... Today is the start of documenting my journey this way (Thursday, Nov 9, 2023). I'll spend the next few days copying posts and pictures over. I'll try to post them with the original date I shared on FB so its easier to read... If you ever have questions about my journey, please ask. I've tried being an open book so others can feel comfortable if they have questions or are going through something similar. So all posts prior to this are coming from Facebook.

A year ago I finished chemo, but I guess I wasn't really done... This picture was from Nov 8, 2022 a few days after I finished chemo the first time... I have continued to update that favorite barista with my ovarian journey...  He has switched locations because of moving, so I'll have to take a side trip to visit...