And So It Begins

We arrived at MD Anderson in Houston on Monday, Dec.5, exactly three years after I finished chemotherapy the first time. I am finally learning my way around their new building, which is very comfortable and much more cheerful than the hospital. The picture to the left shows the tree sculpture, and on the right I am doing school work while waiting for my appointment. As you can see, they have windows everywhere that overlook lush landscaping on every floor.
When we met with the doctor we were in for some shocking news...I apparently have tumors on my liver, lungs, spine, pelvis, lymph nodes...maybe more places, but I was so in shock nothing else registered. Faron and I couldn't believe it, and neither could my doctor...I just felt fine. The good news is that there weren't LOTS of tumors and they seemed to be slow growing. More good news is that the chemo I will be taking once a week does not have nearly the side effects as last time. I might lose my hair eventually, I'll get tired and winded easily, and my white blood cell count will decrease, but nothing as severe as last time.

The game plan is to take chemo until tumors are gone (hopefully) and then take a hormone therapy to keep them from growing back. When Faron asked the doctor how long it would take, he said, " as long as it takes."

After the doctor appointment, we went upstairs for chemo - no messing around. I could not believe how easily I sailed through this infusion. The picture on the top right shows me getting chemo - no steroids, no valium, no anti-nausea meds and most of all - NO CENTRAL LINE. I had an extremely bad experience getting that sucker in last time and was very stressed about going through that again. A central line is a tube that comes out of your chest to make "hook ups" easy. Instead, they just gave me the chemo through an IV that they took out afterwards. I will probably get tired of getting stuck every week, but am happy to deal with it for now. Doc says whenever I am ready, we can put the line in. Anyway, I got a fifteen minute infusion of a drug to avoid allergic reactions to the chemo, then the infusion of chemo for an hour, then they pulled the IV out and we went home. Pretty slick!
On Thursday I have an appointment with a local doctor to get myself set up to have most chemo treatments down here - I am happy to avoid driving to Houston every Monday. I will go to MD every four or five weeks for doctor visit and chemo there.

Although we are certainly in shock about the whole situation, we still feel blessed. If Dr. Perkins had not ordered the blood test which showed an increase in a tumor marker, who knows how long it would have taken us to find the tumors because I truly felt fine and had no complaints at all. We also feel blessed because this time around we are back home surrounded by family and friends, love and prayers, support and encouragement. I had a meeting at the church last Saturday and was lifted up in prayer as I was surrounded by about forty of my sisters-in-Christ. I don't know what God's plan is, but Jeremiah 29 verse 11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."