Dec 30 - Finally catching up

Merry belated Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

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My apologies for not keeping up on my blog.  As the treatments continued, I went down hill in energy and could only manage to keep up on the basics.

Oct 4 was the last day of my triplet therapy.  Triplet therapy is where I received two chemo drugs and one study drug (Bevacizumab).  

My white cell counts and my neutrophiles all dropped drastically.  Oct 7, I had a 3.5 hour nose bleed in the morning and another in the afternoon but for not as long.  I had another a day later and was told to go to the hospital by my oncologist.  My blood tests came back with platelets at 33 and neutrophils being below 1.  I then had to go to emerg every day for blood work and my platelets went down to 15.  Platelets were ordered from Vancouver because we don't have any in Whitehorse but I managed to stay above 10 so did not need to get it done.  

Back to Vancouver Oct 23-25 for appts and CT scan.  I was randomized into the Bevacizumab group only vs Bev and Mirv.

I was so very tired!  Eerything was a chore and just walking from one room to another put me out of breath and required a sit down.  Frustrating!

I was so happy to not have to stay in Vancouver for a week and a half and to have more time at home.  Every Saturday (the day I was heading home) was so emotional and usually ended up with me in tears.  Not only does this journey take a physical toll but the emotional toll is ever so difficult as well.

My CT scan from Oct produced some good results.  The largest nodule was no longer visible.  Yay!  I am so very hesitant to celebrate because this can change at the drop of a hat and I feel like that drop would be much more difficult to compute than staying on a level plane and not getting too excited.  Sounds crazy but I dread every CT Scan and the result.  I have another on Jan 9.  Remember though, just because they cannot see it does not mean it is cured because this cancer can never be cured.  If there is any re-growth, I will be off the study and then new plans will have to be put into place.

As always, I have had wonderful support from family and friends.  Big thanks to Shiela W, Kiarra F for travelling with me and again to those who have in the past.  This is a very difficult journey and having emotional and physical support during these trips is very valuable.  I could not do it without them all.

Thankfully, my last treatment was just before Christmas, Dec 18-20 and my next is Jan 8-10 so I got Christmas at home.

Some great news!  I stopped loosing my hair.  It still has not returned as it was before but I think it is slowly working on it.  I have to get a hair cut as it is kind of fuzzy and I do not like that.

My brother is joining me for my upcoming visit.  It will be nice to spend a few days with him and I am thankful for his assistance.

Windy down in the sky train tunnel

Finally was able to pull out my last "disolving" stitch Dec 13 from my Aug surgery.

Beautiful sunset on Air North

Love travelling with my girl

Another beautiful view while flying Air North

My awesome travelling companion 



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