Treatment Three in the rear view mirror

Round three with chemo went as well as round two, if not better. And round two was definitely better than the first go round. By the time she got home from work last evening and we walked the dogs and got some dinner and she packed my lunch and finally sat down somewhere around nine she was exhausted. But it was more the result of a lack of sleep rather than the chemo. Even though we’d been through it a couple times and had a pretty good idea of what to expect neither of us slept very well the first part of this week. And on Wednesday night she really didn’t sleep well at all. So last night she was in bed by 9:30 but was up and rolling as normal this morning. She had to drive across town to get her three thousand dollar injection to restart her white blood cell production, then took Tillie to the vet and then to the park, came home and chopped up a bunch of bell peppers for the freezer and finished off the last loads of laundry (she’d started laundry after her treatment yesterday but before heading to work). Guess you could say her energy level remains strong.

The other thing that’s become abundantly clear is that one of the anti nausea drugs leaves her, um how might we say, a little cloudy. Well it’s right there on the warning label advising her to stay away from heavy machinery. It also brings to mind all those people in the recent past that went through this without the benefit of today’s anti nausea medications. If you read about the medications and their possible side effects they almost sound as bad as the awful stuff they use for a cure in the first place. But in the bad old days not that long ago there was nothing they could give these people. I guess you find your bright spots where you can. Going into yesterday afternoon dinner was a TBA sort of thing. She pulled some smoked chicken we had frozen out of the freezer. As the dog walk ended our friend Fergy happened to pull up with a container from a pot of chili they’d made. And dinner fell into place. (Fergy and Angie had no way of knowing but it was the perfect chili for Jeannie, three kinds of beans and the right touch of light heat) To the pioneers of chemo, food alone couldn’t even sound remotely possible, let alone smoked chicken and chili.

We’re also continuing our endeavor to keep this whole experience low key. To date only two people Jeannie works with are aware of this, her immediate supervisor and one other lady she works closely with. Nobody in our neighborhood knows to this point. Outwardly we seem like very social people. I guess we are but we’re also intensely private. And by keeping this on the down low as long as we have has succeeded in what she’d hoped to do from the very beginning. Not being treated any differently than anyone else in her day to day life.

Coming up in a future post, why you should get detailed bills. A teaser. At least 12 grand in services never rendered that the insurance company has paid and a balance of 13 hundred the provider hopes to collect from us. Note to Ohio Heath, there’s a chargeback in your future.