Eight down. ZERO to go!

Hallelujah! Mom finally got to have her last chemo treatment today! So glad to get to report that!

This day could not come soon enough for Trish. The side effects of this drug have built up over the course of treatment and are really hitting her hard these days. Aside from having no energy, her skin is peeling and raw (including the inside of her mouth and esophagus, which makes eating painful at times) and her GI issues are ever present. And to add insult to injury, her hair's starting to thin (probably her most hated chemo side effect ever!). It takes about two weeks for the chemo to completely leave her system, so hopefully she'll start feeling more normal before too long. And hopefully she can hang on to her hair for a couple more weeks! Her blood counts don't usually drop (at least not severely) until after the second treatment in a cycle, so we'll be watching for that next week. Her platelets have taken a nosedive since last week, but her hematocrit was better today than it usually is (33). Maybe she'll be able to avoid another transfusion - we'll just have to wait and see. Like I said, if everything can just hold out through these next two weeks, things should start to get better (at least we hope so!).

Today was a good day. Our friend Karen was at the clinic getting Herceptin, so we got to visit with her during treatment, which was a nice perk! After treatment, Mom and I went to lunch and ran a couple errands and then came home and got to visit with our friend Cindi for a while. Then Mom did some stuff around the house before she finally crashed on the couch. And now she's back up snacking because steroids make her hungry. :-)

Oh, and it's also my baby sister's Adoption Day! Six years ago today, my parents rang in the new year by going to court and adding sweet Tekia to our family. Blessings galore.

I can't say enough how happy we are that this chemo is finally OVER! Our next step is to figure out if it did any good. Keep praying for a clean scan on the 24th! Pray that today was the last chemo Mom will ever have to have!


P.S. Anyone catch Dr. Oz today? It was supposed to be about pancreatic cancer. I haven't watched it yet, but I recorded it (you know, because I don't think about cancer enough). Hopefully it'll help bring some attention (and research funding!) to this terrible disease.