Day Off - Bulls-Eye and Vomit Breath

At midnight in the wee hours of Saturday morning, Michelle had her last dose of chemo for this round.  Today she gets a day off of treatment!  All along she has been excited for this day to come.  My guess is that she thought she could take more walks, play more games with whoever came to visit, and just generally have a vacation day.  Sadly this was not the case. 

I spoke with Shelly on the phone at 8:30 am to discover that it was another BAD day.  I asked her what was new with a reply, "well, I have vomit breath."  Quickly rearranging my schedule I dashed in to the hospital to help lift her spirits and take her mind off of feeling pucky.  Thank goodness Gerald and Cindy beat me there.  Gerald is always GREAT for a laugh.  Gerald was at the hospital early to have his second round of shots getting his blood revved up with an abundance of stem cells to transfer to Shelly.  Cindy had carefully prepared his belly with an artistic bulls-eye to ensure the nurse would not miss when aiming the shots.  This was a hilarious site to behold and helped lift Michelle’s spirits. 

A shout out to Gerald for the sacrifice he is making for Michelle.  As briefly mentioned before, he started his rounds of shots yesterday morning.  This helps produce an abundance of stem cells that will be collected on Tuesday during a nine hour process to be given to Michelle on Wednesday morning.  We all had been told about the side effects, but didn’t quite believe it until we actually saw it.  Gerald felt the effects almost immediately.  Yesterday he experienced his first hot flash and very sore joints and muscles.  Today was followed with another round of hot flashes and extreme flu like symptoms.  Last I heard he was curled up in fetal position waiting out the storm.  He receives two shots in the belly every morning for five days until the stems cells are harvested.

For a diversion Shelly painted hearts to give to her grandchildren for Valentine’s Day.  This helped for about an hour, and then nothing seemed to distract her from feeling nauseated.  The oral anti-nausea medicine didn’t help today, probably because she couldn’t keep them down.  Finally at 1:00 pm Shelly was given IV nausea medicine and medicine to help her sleep.  Dad came in and gave her a priesthood blessing.  Almost immediately Shelly was able to go into a deep sleep.  The chemo is starting to settle in, causing her to feel weak and nauseous.  Please pray for Michelle to have endurance and peace over the next week that lies ahead of her.  It is going to be a rough one.