Bad to the bone?

That's how Deb's doing after her first administration of Taxol.
Not as nauseous as the Adriamycin/Cytoxan combo, but an entirely different set of side effects.

The differences in the treatments began before it was even given....Wednesday night (the night before chemo) Deb took some steroids as a pre-treatment. The treatment itself lasted much longer than the previous regiment. Deb was there getting her infusion from a bit after 9am until almost 4:30. Exhausting sitting there all day...and she almost ran through all of her batteries too - dvd player, ipod, phone, nintendo; you know the chemo tools of the 2000's...

With the first round of treatments she didn't really seem to feel any effects for a few days. This time, however, that evening she summed it up in a single word: weird.
And that's exactly how her feeling appeared to me. I was just watching her and I could tell that she wasn't feeling right...but it kind of makes sense...get infused with chems all day and feel weird all night, right?

By Friday and Saturday the weirdness progressed into pain, both in the bones and joints. And not just like her hands hurt, or her back hurts, or her legs hurt, but all of it is hurting. Deb made it with us to Ryan's gymnastics on Friday and we all went to the beach on Saturday which was just awesome. It was such a lovely day and Ryan and Jojo (and Deb & I) all had a blast just walking down the beach counting boats. Ryan was all about the water. "Want go in water NOW!"...so, we rolled up our pant legs and felt that cold cold Monterey Bay water. Funny how kids are not affected by things like really cold water. I had to physically remove the girl so that I could regain feeling in my feet. It was a really nice day for all of us, and Jojo got to stretch her legs for a much needed while.

Sunday, the all-over bone pain got worse and was accompanied by a wake-up nose bleed. Add to that a gray wintry rainy soggy Santa Cruz day - which always seems to increase the feelings of pain...Fan-freakin'-tastic :)

I'll quote Deb, "I think I prefer nausea to this."
So, that's where we are on this Monday morning.
I know, lame blog, but...

What to say....

Hi all,

I just felt like I needed to post even though I'm not sure what news there really is to report.

We had a great visit from Miki. She's just awesome. I can't believe my fortune that I should be friends with such a great bunch of people. Miki took great care of us and the house and brought us yummy delights from LA; baked goods from the Jewish bakery, Pastrami and pickles from the deli, dim sum from Chinatown...and then she had the gall to go and cook delicious foods like every single night she was here. Yeah, we were sad to see her leave, but we know that she's busy busy now. For those that don't already know, check out Miki's website at www.blanketdiva.com and you won't be sorry. There's no shame in this plug here, because we are proud owners of a blanketdiva blanket and we highly recommend that you check it out. The site is great and the product is unbelievable soft. Seriously.

What else? Deb's been tired but staying busy with Ryan and all of her routines. We're all glad that we're now halfway complete with the chemotherapy. Next week Deb will get her first dose of Taxol & Herceptin. They generally administer Taxol every 3 weeks but have been seeing promising results by giving weekly doses, so it's likely that she'll get a 3 week dose first to get through the holidays and then go weekly after that. But that remains to be seen.

Ryan's continuing to develop her vocabulary and singing voice. She's still experimenting with the potty and we're very much looking forward to the day we can set those Diaper Champs out to pasture....though as we start to frequent some of the Santa Cruz public toilets I see the advantage to wearing diapers ;)

Jojo's got fleas and all I can say is that's a real bummer. Poor girl can't scratch hard enough. And man, it's annoying; and not just Jojo is annoyed ;) So we're giving her healthy doses of Frontline to get rid of them little buggers....

We're so excited to go and celebrate the holidays and December b-days Saturday night up at Chris & Kath's new place in Walnut Crick and then Sunday we're going on the Holiday Train ride here in Santa Cruz at the Boardwalk so that should be a good time.

Other than that, the beat goes on....
We would like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a hap hap happy holiday season. Enjoy the full moon, the solstice, Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, Festivus, whatever....

If we don't blog before 2009, everyone have a blast this newyears. For those of you who will be in Denver, know that we're right there above/behind/around/next to you in spirit. Breaking our hearts to not spend that time and space with you all. For everyone who will be in other places welcoming the New Year, do it right, do it fun and do it safe.

We love you.
Happy Everything from the Finfers