Chemo Week #2 in Review: Chemo, Fevers and Snow

Hard to believe that I haven't blogged in a full week.  My apologies to all my die-hard fans out there.  But, it has been a bit of a crazy week.  Most importantly though, I am now 50% done with my chemo treatments.  Let's head to the "highlights" of the week:

> The chemo started kicking my ass much earlier than during week 1.  Whereas I previously didn't feel fatigued until Thursday evening, this time I started feeling fatigued on Monday evening.  Fortunately, I was just able to make it through a full work day every day, but once the evening rolled around, I was knocked out for a couple of hours, would "wake up" for dinner, then go back to bed for the night.  And when I say "wake up", I mean that Florence would stand over me and force me to get out of bed to eat dinner while I would beg for ten more minutes, knowing that I really had no intentions of getting out of bed on my own.

> The daycare called Florence on Monday afternoon to let her know that Sadie had a 102 fever, that she needed to be picked up and that she couldn't come back to daycare until she was fever-free for 24 hours (all standard protocols, so no issues there).  But, since this was a chemo week, life was already hectic enough in the Grossman household.  So, Florence took me to chemo on Tuesday while my mother took her first of three sick days (in that week alone) to take care of Sadie.  On Wednesday, Florence had to go into the office, so my mother took her second of three sick days to take care of Sadie while my dad took me to chemo.  Wednesday night, my mother went home but my father stayed over because of the pending snowstorm.  So, that night, my father shoveled my driveway while Florence took care of me and Sadie.  Thursday morning, my father did some more shoveling of my driveway and then drove me to chemo while Florence worked from home and took care of a still sick Sadie.  Thursday night, my father went back home to be replaced by Stephanie who was coming up from Delaware to take me to chemo on Friday and then help out around the house on Saturday.  But, Sadie was still sick with a fever so my mother then took her third and final sick day of the week to take care of Sadie because Florence had to be in the office for face-to-face meetings and because Stephanie had to be with me at chemo.

> Over the weekend, Stephanie helped around the house on Saturday while Florence's parents helped out with Sadie on Sunday.  You will note that I did no helping of any kind because the extent of my usefulness was moaning about my stomach pains, dealing with my nausea (no vomiting, but some good gagging) and laying in bed.

> Now, it's Monday morning and the first of two chemo-free weeks.  I get my Nulasta injection today, which will help my body to create white blood cells and fight off injection, hopefully avoiding another prolonged visit to the hospital.

> Chemo Week #2 was definitely tougher, all around, than Chemo Week #1.  The increased, and more pronounced, side effects were tough on me because I was able to contribute less to the household than I previous did.  With Sadie being sick, I felt ineffective as a father because I couldn't help take care of her without risking a serious infection.  Florence was literally taking care of two sick patients, and I know that I'm the more annoying patient.  And while it's very nice to have the revolving door of help from the family, it's personally frustrating when you are physically unable to care for your home and your family.

> Let's look on the bright side - 50% of the chemo treatments are now complete!  I have two weeks to recover and start feeling more "like myself".  Apparently, my birthday is in four weeks.  And, my baby girl turns 1 next month!!!  Thanks for coming to the blog.  I'll be back in a couple of days - I still have those rant topics that I never wrote about...