Mary's First Chemo Treatment

Hey all,

I know...I know, there haven't been any updates in quite awhile. Sorry...everything has been going pretty well so it felt good to just forget about everything for a couple of weeks...but back to reality!

Mary had to have a complete body and bone scan before they would start the chemo just to make sure there wasn't cancer anywhere else. Both came back negative...great news!

Yesterday was Mary's first chemo treatment. Only 7 more... They gave her a combination of drugs. They started off with some anti-nausea meds, for obvious reasons and then gave her Dexamathasone, which is a steroid...used in this case to avert any allergic reactions to the coming meds. Next came Cytoxan, a pretty common chemo drug, but very harsh. This one will cause her to lose her hair and kill all fast growing cells in her body such as...cancer cells, hair cells, tastebuds, all of the cells that line your throat, stomach and intestines, white blood cells, red blood cells, etc. You get the picture? (obviously it doesn't kill all of these cells or she would die) Because of it's effects on the lining of your stomach it also causes alot of nausea. Next up...Adriamycin...nicknamed the "red devel" because it looks like red hair gel and turns your urine, tears and sweat red. When this first came out it was used as an antibiotic...I guess after it killed a few people along with the infection they had, it was decided that it should be used on cancer patients. ha, ha...anyway...the total process took about 3 hours. Not much fun but we did meet some really nice people while we were there.

Mary has handled this treatment really well. Just a little nausea and some headaches. (that's all she has told me about anyway!) I think that's it. I expected her to sleep in today but she was up and ready to go before I was. (that's not to hard. I'm not a morning person.) They gave her a prescription for nausea a couple of weeks ago called Amend. 3 pills...$450!! It seems to be working though so it's worth it. We have to get it filled before each treatment so lets see...$450 X 8 treatments is $3600. Wow...for just this one prescription, but like I said, it seems to work so it's worth it. Hopefully Mary will get through the next couple of days without to much trouble. By the end of next week all of her hair will be gone. (most likely) Her next treatment is on April 22nd, just when she will be starting to feel normal again. She has been texting a bunch so if you would like to talk to her feel free.

Mary is planning on doing some cancer walks in the near future, like "Race for a cure." I will post some info about what's going on with those as soon as I find out the details. Or you can just ask her if you want. Thanks to all of you that have been calling, sending letters, cards and emails. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers very much.

Love you all,

Dave, Mary & Erin