5th Infusion; 42% Finished!

Good Evening =)

First, a bit of recap from the last infusion. The intervening days between chemo 4 and 5 were surprisingly difficult. Aliza had a lot of new pains, new challenges, added to the old ones. Finally, around Friday (Thursday had moments that were deceivingly good, but sudden onset of complete exhaustion) she started to feel more human with some stamina. We were both so very relieved for all the support we've had - and some of the side benefits of receiving meals (not having to plan what is for dinner, not having a huge mess to clean up, not having to race home from work to cook, having a SIMPLE grocery list) just became really apparent. So I just wanted make sure that we expressed how grateful we are.

Today Aliza received the 5th infusion and I'm going to claim at a huge milestone point because we are 42% complete (let me round up!). Why? Listen to, or read (watching isn't so good), Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Dr. Azar confirmed that all of Aliza's new symptoms are expected... just sooner than expected. One of her known interactions with medication is a high sensitivity to whatever she takes, especially side effects. So, the mental affects from the nausea meds hit hard, and she has to take a half dose; Nyquil means Darth Vader is coming to visit. With Chemo, her hair started falling out one cycle early and pain in her hands and feet has shown up 2 cycles early. Unfortunately, there is no correlation to chemo working better (or worse) when this happens. We're now home and managed to eat another excellent meal, got Fixer Upper playing in the background, and hoping and praying that the Chemo crash this week is better than the last infusion.

As a final note, JeriAnn has filled out the meal dates through April and there plenty of opening available if you were waiting for the schedule to clear up. We made some slight tweaks to the days that will work best for us by adding a meal to help with infusion days (those days can be more unpredictable, for instance, the next few infusions will start after 2 PM vs 10 AM) and the weekend meal is a heat & serve meal since church or other weekend activities can be unpredictable.

I hope this mostly catches everyone up, at least generically, with what has been going on since the last update. Sorry for the long delay!

Thanks for all your support,

Rob