November 5, 2021

Happy Fri-Yay Y’all – 

It’s early and I’m enjoying a cup of coffee and some amazing low-carb whole wheat bread from Great Harvest Bread Company in Austin.  If you haven’t ever had it – I promise you, it’s life-changing.  I buy the low-carb bread and have a piece (or two) on my yucky mornings as the chemo nurses have explained to me during those moments of nausea it’s best to stick with the BRAT diet.  Yep, the same one your pediatrician told you for your sick kiddos.  Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, and Toast.  So I am filling up with some Toast to keep my tummy happy today.  

Side note – these is the ingredients in the bread I’m eating – seriously, yummy!  The menu is found here.

Low Carb – TBaked fresh on Tuesday, Thursday 
Whole Wheat, wheat gluten, water, honey, tofu, eggs, olive oil, wheat bran, oat bran, rolled oats, flaxseed, salt, and yeast.

We discovered this gem of a bread company at Wolf Ranch Farmers Market, however, in the past 2 weeks they have not been there because they can’t find people to work the market.  Ugh – COVID!  Anyhoo, my wonderful husband, pressured by my wonderful sister-in-law, Vickie took the drive to South Austin last weekend to get some for me for the upcoming weeks.  That’s love y’all! 

Today I will be posting some exciting news in another post, however, I wanted to keep this one focused on my Chemo Day details.  

The last chemo went well, or at least I thought so.  I did have some horrible migraine-like headaches, which I’ve not experienced before, however, I think they were brought on by the Zophrane that I was taking and, of course, some nausea.  But hey, that’s to be expected from this regime.  I had about 12-15 crappy hours, but in retrospect, I’ve had hangovers that have lasted longer than that, so I called it a win.  Especially considering when I’ve heard the stories of others, their experiences were much, much worse than mine.  (Again, PRAISES, #winning!)  

This time the doctor decided to pretreat with me starting the steroids a day earlier.  Yes, they give you lots of steroids around Chemo day.  You get steroids before chemo, steroids after chemo for 4 days.  I am not starting on Thursdays and taking them till Monday so effectively 5 days to keep nausea down and body up. 

Side note – Pray for Mano y’all.  Notoriously, steroids keep me up and wired for sound.  So after tonight and tomorrow, I’m sure he and I will both be sleep-deprived because I come up with some wonderful and enlightening conversations during these moments.  Okay, I think I do anyway.  Actually, pray for us all – we may not make it through steroid-induced insomnia as a couple.  Hahaha – but seriously… I digress.

Along with pre-treating the symptoms, we have switched anti-nausea meds from Zophran to Phenergen which I hear makes you sleepy.  So my plan for today is this.  I am going to chemo, taking all the wonderful drugs to kill my cancer and the fluids, steroids, etc. then coming home and taking Phenergan and hopefully drifting off to La La Land for the next 12+ hours.  Trust me when I say, Mano is under strict instructions to keep that coming every 5 1/2 hours till Saturday morning.  Only get me up to drink something, go to the bathroom then put me back to bed.  Let’s see how he does.  If I’m not keeping him awake he will make sure this happens. LOL.

So peeps, prayers for that today and I will check in later in the weekend to provide an update if my plan worked or not. 

Praises for the week:

• I had a strong week – worked every day, walked every day, ate, and slept well
• I had my first Virtual Prayer session – Praises for that
• I was able to get my appointment with Dr. Glen Luepnitz, nutritionist, at N4H Research moved from 12/27 to 11/13.  The link can be found here.
• I went to acupuncture last night to prepare for today and have an appointment on Saturday also.
• I meditated for an hour at acupuncture.
• I feel mentally strong and physically good.

Thank you again for joining me on this journey.  I love and appreciate you all.  I am lifted by your prayers, positive thoughts, and kind words.  I appreciate all the text, messages, cards, and gifts.  My village rocks.  Till next time…..

xoxo,

Tracy