Tuesday, May 7–Chemo Sesh #2

I have decided to choose a verse to stand on each week.  I found my verse for this week in Romans 15:13–”Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

We will never fully understand God, His ways, His plans, or why He works the way he does.  But I KNOW my God is a GOOD GOD and only wants good things for me.  He has shown me that time and time again.  I pray daily that I can keep that hope and that it will continue to fill me with joy and peace.

It was a loooong day on Tuesday.  We started out with a 9:00 appointment at the surgeon’s office because that dang reaction has flared up again.  (BTW-it’s fine, I guess.)  No need for further treatment.  I will just live with the redness and irritation at this point.

Then we had a bit of downtime between appointments.  That means….FEED ME!  Since I have drastically changed my diet and I am now eating vegetarian, I have found some new favorite places to chow.  Chimera on Main in Downtown Tulsa has become a fave.  So we zipped over there so I could enjoy a yummy meal before the start of an icky tummy again.

Back to the clinic for labs, appt with the doc, and chemo.

It’s really interesting to me how different people react to something like cancer.  I mean, I get it, it is an awful diagnosis and the treatment really sucks, but life is life and I am going to work hard to get through this smiling as much as I can.  The infusion nurses work around chemo patients day in and day out and they have all cracked up at this fun little bag I keep my chemo necessities in.  I would have figured they had seen all the stupid little puns and funny sayings, but none had heard this one.  (I have a few new shirts I am working on that I know they will love).

It was just a usual treatment day…until it wasn’t!

I took all my premeds and the nap began.  (That benadryl will wipe a girl flat out!)  Then the Taxol–no issues.  Carbo was started while I was still dozing.  I remember a weird feeling in my chest but I was tired and it wasn’t bad so I ignored it and dozed off again.  Then I awoke in a panic.  I couldn’t breathe.  I mean, I ‘could’ but it was not easy.  It felt like an elephant was on my chest.  I was aware that I had only been shallow breathing and I needed to take a big deep breath.  I tried.  I started coughing.  I tried again, but to no avail.  I motioned for Paul to get the nurses attention and squeaked out the words that I was having a hard time breathing.  I have never seen someone move so fast!

Within seconds, my chemo was stopped.  The nurse started putting all kinds of things in my tubes and carefully explaining each step to Paul and myself as she did it.  Another nurse hands me a nebulizer to start breathing through.  A third nurse is charting everything that is being done down to the minute.  The fourth nurse was just observing.  All I can say is this was a well-oiled machine!  These nurses sprung into action and each knew their exact role in the situation.  It was so comforting to watch in such a scary situation.

I later asked the nurse if it was just an allergic reaction.  She said not so much an allergic reaction as just my body rejecting the chemo meds.  She said it is somewhat common but most people don’t experience it until about treatment 7–not usually this early.

Great!  Just more proof that I am going to continue to be a “problem child” through all of this.

After my body had a small bit of time to recoup, they resumed treatment and I was able to finish my chemo.  We didn’t walk out of there until close to 4:15.  That was a LONG day, but another battle won in my war on cancer!

And because I know I have an AWESOME and supportive community, and I know so many of you will feel helpless in this fight of mine, these are ways to you can help us:

1. You guys are stinkin’ amazing and wiped my Amazon list clean!  I can’t think of anything else I need.  I have a pantry with backstock of my favorite snack items and protein!
2. I know many of you have been asking how to help financially.  If you feel led to donate financially to help with medical bills, you can do that via venmo to @Jami-Sullins or CashApp to $JamiSullins.
3. Due to diet restrictions, it is difficult to do a MealTrain and most restaurants that I can enjoy don’t offer delivery.  The best gift cards are for Whole Foods, Sprouts Farmers Market, or Walmart for groceries.

Please understand, we are not asking for you to spend any money, but I also know that many of you have the Lord’s gifts of hospitality and caregiving, so I wanted to provide ways you could help.