Egg retrieval results: Time for my babies to go to bed. They are being tucked away into their cryofreezer as soon as possible. I was lucky to find ReproTech, recommended by LiveStrong. They are a fantastic group of employees who have experienced the fertility challenges. They work at ReproTech to help give back to other women in similar circumstances, like me. They offered me a reasonable price to store them. Here's the first photo of my family offspring. I was so excited to show the photo to my boyfriend and family. My mom already has a photo of it posted since they are her future grandchildren. :)
Lumpectomy results... It's finally healed! The two scars look great and healing nicely. I can't thank my surgeon enough.
Chemo treatment 1: Can only get blood work done in my left arm because of the lumpectomy and lymph node retrieval.
Week 1: Back pain, hip pain. Tylenol doesn't cut it and can't take Advil or Ibuprofen. Bruised on arm and right arm where lymph nodes were retrieved. It can take months for the pain to go away. It may return though.
Week 2: This is the week that I'm most susceptible to getting sick. I ended up using hand sanitizer all the time. And avoiding family and friends that were sick. It was a lonely week. :(
This is the scar from chemo the second week. It was purple and green the week before. Very tender to touch. I had to be careful not to pump into anything.
Week 3: First major hair shed. It's supposed to start about 10-20 days after the first chemo treatment. It happened before work. Took a lot of strength not to cry when this happened. I guess you could make a nice mini toupe from it though. :)
Week 4 - 5: Chemo treatment 2: First day of Chemo was a bit more intense then last time. Here's me in the cold cap with the IV flowin. My boyfriend insists that I look like a Muppet. I prefer to think of it as a psuedo-rugby cap.
Week 5: Done with chemo treatment 2. Halfway through it all. This time went a lot faster. No bruising from the IV this time. YAY! I'm still using the cold caps. It was still tough, but I think they are helping immensely. I receive a shot of Neulasta 24 hours after each treatment. The shot prompts by bone marrow to grow more white blood cells immediately. The hardest thing is the 3 days after the shot. My hip bones, entire back along my spine, neck and knee joints hurt. It feels like growing pains but in reverse. I can't walk or move easily. I end up spending the entire time lying down with a heating pad. It's strange to feel like an old lady with a decent amount of pain, but I can definitely relate to how they feel. The hardest thing is keeping my spirits up and going back to work afterwards. It takes a few days before I feel back to normal. Then everything is fine.
My boyfriend has been amazing through all of this. He's been a great care taker. My family has been incredible too--helping with cold caps and making me yummy meals so I don't have to cook.
Week 6: Back to work and back to the routine. It's weird, but 1 week after chemo my tastebuds are completely gone. My tounge feels rough, as though I burned it. I wish I could just scrape it with a tounge scraper that you get from the dentist. That would not make a difference. All the food that I love tastes strange. It happened last time too. It takes at least 1 week to go away. This is normal for chemo. I can't even enjoy a glass of wine. That tastes normal. Weird how chemo makes you change your drink choice. At least I can enjoy beer still. :)
Week 7 and on... Will keep you posted!
