January

Happy New Year everyone!

• I'm grateful for so much at the start of this new year
• I have a nice round and clean hairless scalp
• I completed my 142-page Volume: A of the Monroe County Scrap Book
• Our neighbors and family are feeding us well
• A dear neighbor made me some nice warm fleece hats
• Former neighbors have helped themselves to my house dust and dirt
• We have received nearly 300 cards, plus countless e-mails, phone calls, and visits
• My children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren are keeping me in good spirits
• Most of all, Tom is a very good doc

• I had blood drawn and met with my onologist this morning
• I wore my wiggie and boy, did I get everyone's attention!
• Everyone, including the men and women in the waiting room loved seeing me looking so cheerful in my wiggie - it really brightened things up
• I even got invited to a "Looking Good and Feeling Great" class on January 18 to show it off!
• My blood count was good, so I was able to get my chemotherapy treatment
• This is the first week of my cycle, which includes two drugs
• The last time I had these two drugs my blood pressure kept rising and they had to slow down the drip
• This time, though, it behaved itself so the drip kept dripping and I got out of there in record time
• The oncologist wants to wait until after the third cycle of chemo before repeating CAT scans, so that will be the middle of February instead of late January as originally planned
• He gave me some medicine to help with the painful side effects I had last time
• I'm feeling great so far!

• I have infected hair follicles right now
• The chemo agent, Taxol, kills the fast-growing cancer cells, but also kills other fast-growing cells in the body and hair is one of them
• My hair has always been so thick and healthy, with no gray, but I lost it a couple of weeks ago
• Now it wants to come back but the Taxol doesn't like this
• I'm on an antibiotic to help counteract what the Taxol and my hair wants to do
• In other words, who will win, my grandpa George L. Christman's red hair or the Taxol?
• I only have Taxol on the first week of my chemo cycle, so maybe things will calm down before I have it again the end of this month
• I go for week two of my chemo cycle tomorrow

• A dose of the chemo agent Gemzar went like clockwork today
• My blood count was up (which is good)
• My scalp is healing and the new hair is still coming in
• So, my grandpa Christman is winning this battle so far, making sure that I keep the reward he gave me when I was born
• Next Wednesday I will only have blood work done, no chemo
• That will be the end of my second cycle of chemo

• I went back just for blood work today
• My blood count is low, but should build up by next week so I can start my third chemo cycle
• I still have the sores on my scalp, which are very painful
• My oncologist prescribed different antibiotic and pain pills for this, so hopefully that will help
• Doc Tom got his hair cut a lot like mine!
• I can't talk him into wearing a wiggie, though

• This morning I had a CAT scan to check the progress of the chemotherapy
• I hope the chemo has been causing as many problems with my cancer cells as it has with the rest of me!
• I've had such a bad allergic reaction to the chemo drugs, my doctor wants to make sure they're working on the tumors before trying to find a medication that will get rid of my rashes and blisters, which have spread to both legs
• The oncologist said before that if these drugs aren't shrinking my tumors, or at least stopping them from growing, they will try a different drug combination
• We will meet with the oncologist next Tuesday, February 1, to get the results of the CAT scan
• Kathy will be coming home this weekend
• Kathy, Tom, and Marlene will go to the doctor appointment with me

• It's time to share some good news!
• Tom and I went to the hospital today to pick up the CAT scan results
• They found that the largest tumor on my liver had shrunk almost half in size!
• The report said that the liver tumors had shrunk in both size and number
• Some nodules previously visible are no longer visible
• They scanned my whole body and found no other tumors
• I can put up with any of these side effects now
• My oncologist is going to be so proud of me for telling my body to make this work!
• We will go to see the oncologist on Tuesday to find out how to proceed
• I'm scheduled to begin my next chemo cycle on Wednesday
• Tonight we're going out to dinner to celebrate!