UPDATE and post Chemo Round Five dining last night

UPDATE: Slept almost eleven hours last night. Amazing! Today I've taken my post-chemo meds, had breakfast of baked frozen Grands buttermilk biscuits and frozen Jimmy Dean sausage links and Twinings English Breakfast tea. Then I got dressed and walked over to Albertina Kerr to enjoy the roses as they continue to bloom before shopping at their thrift shop, AK's Closet, and their gift shop which concentrates on jewelry, AK's Jewel Box--at least I think that's the name. I enjoyed myself and didn't spend too much money! The chemo went straight through yesterday, thanks to figuring out how to use Ativan and close monitoring of my blood pressure so that we didn't have to pause the Taxo--it still took from around 9:20 a.m. until about 3:04 p.m. to empty that bag, then the Carboplatin took 30 minutes after it was hooked up. Finally, after flushing the port in my chest and pulling out the needle, then covering it with a medicated band-aid, we were outta there and leaving the parking garage at 4:10 p.m. Hooray!



Over the last few days, I'd made up my mind that my post-chemo meal would be at my favorite neighborhood spot, the Blue Diamond. Here's what I knew would taste just right to my chemo-impacted taste buds. I ate half the deli turkey sandwich and salt-less tater tots. Yummy! I didn't photograph my treat to myself, two huge scoops of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup, whipped cream and two cherries.



Lamont's chicken strips and fries, from the Happy Hour menu. They smelled real good.



Leland's cheeseburger and tater tots. He likes his ketchup straight outta the fridge, nice and cold. I do, too! Thanks, Janessa, for always remembering!



My hand-decorated leftover box! For Halloween, no less! Thanks, Janessa!

UPDATE and my supper this evening

UPDATE: Interesting day. I slept well, woke up 15 minutes before the alarm, put too much salt in my morning oatmeal and had to toss it, instead ate tiny croissants, prunes and raisins, with hot tea and water. I took all of my pre-chemo meds as prescribed. Lamont and I got to the Oncology Center just after 7 a.m. I had the blood work again, checked in for Chemo Round Three when the receptionist was ready to begin her day, then I sat down to wait the hour until the 8:30 a.m. appointment.

I had to get that blood checked again because the very low platelet count from yesterday demanded a re-count. Happy that it and the white blood count and the hemoglobin count were inside normal, too. I was so happy about that that I forgot to ask the oncology pharmacist what would have happened if the platelet count stayed so low. I'm going to e-mail her and ask about that so I will know, in case this happens again. At 4:21 p.m., Lamont and I were in his car driving out of the parking garage.

During the morning I had developed two tiny, itchy, red hives on my left wrist which the nurse, the oncology pharmacist and I agreed were hives brought on by the chemo called Taxo. It was paused, I had Benadryl dripped in through the line used for the saline, and once the hives had completely disappeared, the Taxo was turned on again. I took until 3:21 p.m. because I was able to tolerate 150 ml/hour starting at 12:48 p.m. That's my max rate since I've had some side effects from the Taxo on all three rounds. Nothing that those professionals couldn't straighten out. Let me tell you, I am treated like a queen by everyone there! I am so grateful for these people and the care that they give me!



Here's what I wanted for supper, the Killer Burger minus the house sauce, grilled onions and pickles. It is perfect; the fries are perfect; the fountain drink Barq's root beer is perfect. I ate half of it all and drank not quite half of the root beer. The rest of it is in the frig, ready for me to enjoy tomorrow. For dessert, after I'd been home for a while, I enjoyed a single piece of Edwards' lemon meringue pie. Now, I'm heading for the recliner and will, in all probability, fall asleep during Thursday night football on NBC

I'm that tired. The oncology pharmacist told us that the fatigue is cumulative with each round, so it will get more pronounced and could continue after the last round in early November. I certainly have noticed it lately. Anyway, it's great to know that it is an expected side effect.

In the back of my mind, I wonder if I will be able to go to any home Portland Trail Blazers' games due to this fatigue. Opening night is October 28. I know that I have the option of calling for a wheel chair to meet me at the curb and roll me to the entry where I will sit, and then take me back to the curb afterwards. I'll go in a cab each way, wearing my mask to protect me against the possibility of a cold or the flu. We'll see if it works out. If it doesn't, maybe I'll be able to sell those games or give them to someone who wants to go alone. Go, Blazers!

Thank you for every single prayer, for your love, and for your concern. I need all of that and can feel it happening.

UPDATE and here's dessert for my Saturday night supper. Go, Dawgs! It's SEC football time, y'all!

UPDATE: Slept well, slept late this morning. I felt fine, but I stayed so sleepy that I had to give up and get in the recliner where I dozed off and on the rest of the morning until Lamont texted to ask if I wanted to go to the grocery store in a little while. I'd asked him to take me with him when he planned to go for me on Saturday, that I wanted to go instead of sending a list and my shopping bags with him. So, I woke on up enough to get ready. I felt OK doing it although I could tell that I was still very tired. After we got back and he put away most all of the purchases, we hugged bye-bye, and I headed back to the recliner. Five, six hours later, I finally woke up enough to get up out of the recliner. I don't feel like I'll fall asleep again right away, but I'm staying outta the recliner, to be safe because I don't want to fall asleep this early!



For supper I ate a little bit of deli baked turkey, sliced thinly like I like it; some green grapes; two little bitty croissants; a little bit of Coca-Cola from a big bottle named Tailgate. For dessert, these two totally perfect Fudgsicles. I love these triple-C sweethearts: creamy, cold, chocolate. I have to control myself and let them sit for a few minutes so that they thaw--that's what makes the creamy and the chocolate get ahead of the cold and reveal their perfection. Yummy.

I missed most of the first half of the Mississippi State University vs the University of Southern Mississippi football game. I woke up in time to see State stop Southern at the goal line, so State still leads 14-10 at half time. I hope that I am able to stay awake for the rest of the game. Let's go Dawgs! Win this football game! I just got to ring my Mississippi State Cowbell app! Mississippi State, 21-10! Yeah! Yea! Yippee!

UPDATE - Lunch and supper today. As of now, no taste alterations. I am blessed.

UPDATE: Slept a bit better last night until 1:45 a.m. when I had a cramp in my left foot and inner right thigh--those cramps that make you think, OK, just cut off my foot, cut off my leg--the pain's excruciating and the muscles become rigid out the wazoo. I did what my little Mama always said worked for her, I licked the salt from a restaurant-size-packet off the palm of my hand. The cramps left and I decided to sleep in the recliner for a while, instead of the bed.

Still no nausea to speak of--hooray! I haven't had to take any meds for that since Sunday.

Still dealing with peripheral neuropathy, which continues to wax and wane. I talked with the oncology pharmacist about it today. She gave me an option stronger than Tylenol in case it gets so bad that I cannot sleep. Here's hoping that doesn't happen.

Thank you for your continued prayers, love and concern. They mean the world to me, y'all.



This is lunch. I decided that I wanted to try to make an egg, veggie, chicken, and cheese scramble, then put it into a flour tortilla. Yummy, so doggone yummy. Cool that I had enough for two! I love having leftovers because it makes being versatile like this easy. I drank water from my 28-ounce mug.



This is supper. More leftovers--the baked chicken, the baked sweet potato, and the steamed broccoli. I added the fresh green grapes and cherries. Believe it or not, the flavors melded in a most pleasing manner. Naturally, I drank some water with my supper.



I'm happy and full and ready to watch some more NYPD Blue episodes on Amazon Prime Instant Video. I am totally blessed. I took this photo of my TV this morning, to share with someone at work--I knew that he'd be thrilled for me to have this beauty in my apartment.

Supper. I love leftovers!

I cooked this on Sunday, intending to have it as supper, off and on this week. First I put the two chicken breasts in the glass bowl--sprinkled with salt and pepper, drizzled with olive oil--and baked them for one hour in the oven, 350 degrees. Then I got them out of the bowl so that I could use the drippings and olive oil mixture elsewhere.


Here's where I used it, in this great big saute pan so that I could first cook my cippolini onion and carrots, then braise my variety of greens and spinach. I think that I have Kale. Is that kale, y'all?

So, you see the fresh vegetables which I reaped at the Portland State University Farmers Market which opened this past Saturday. Yummy. I also bought a jar of Mango Madness, a fine pepper jelly from the Rose City Pepperheads, some Chevreddar goat cheese from Farmucopia in Woodland, WA, some other cheese from Ancient Heritage Dairy, Opal Creek, from Scio, OR. I thought I read on their sign that it was sheep cheese--now that I look at the label I see that it is described as "Artisan made on our farm with raw cow milk, cultures, enzymes and salt." Oh, well, I won't each much of it at one time so maybe the lactose tolerance problem won't kick in. It also says "aged at least 60 days." It ought to make a fine grilled cheese. I also go two smallish chocolate chip cookies sprinkled with fleur de sel (sea salt). Actually, I bought one, succumbed to its tastes and texture, then bought the other one and ate it right then, too! The best morsels I popped in my mouth as I made my way through the market!

Our Sunday supper on June 7, 2009

OK, we've got pre-browned ground beef mixed with sauteed Vidalia sweet onion, a spaghetti spice packet from Fred Meyer and two cans of petite diced no-salt S&W tomatoes, plus angel hair pasta--Barilla. Just what is pre-browned ground beef? A couple of weeks ago I bought two packages of ground beef, about a pound and a quarter each. I decided to brown one and make burritos which we thoroughly enjoyed. I also decided to brown the other one, drain it well, and freeze it. Sunday I thawed it to mix with those other ingredients, smart gal that I am!

On top of the spaghetti I have a vegetable combination, all cooked in my usual rough-cut, sauteed in olive/canola oil method. The combination is Vidalia sweet onion, orange bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, baby bok choy, rainbow chard, Italian kale and curly kale.

Mama and I ate it, happily impressed with the tastes and textures. Thank goodness--we've got left-overs!