Lauren & Chris Yerkes: Our Cancer Journey: 6-25-2022 Update

Howdy everyone. Lauren is now 25% done with treatment as Tuesday!

For those who have been keeping up with the treatment plan, infusion was once every two weeks, four sessions total, with two chemo medications (and a plethora of other meds to keep Lauren comfortable). This 4^th treatment hit Lauren a bit harder as she was much more tired two days post treatment than she has experienced in previous infusions. Other than that, side effects remained the same (nausea, fatigue, funny tastes, etc).

Lauren bringing the fashion to her chemo appointment with her Golden Goose glitter sneakers 🤗

Starting 7/5, Lauren’s treatment plan will done weekly, for 12 sessions. From our understanding, the nurses and Dr. Vandermolen have told us that the first round of chemo medications that Lauren has completed were the toughest and that these two new chemo medications won’t put as much stress on the body, but they won’t make her feel any worse (or better), but things should just be more consistent, specifically with tiredness because there is no weekly break in between.

We are both anxious to see how these next round of meds goes, as we’ve learned to adapt and adjust to the first round, so we’ll be monitoring and keeping track to see how the week of 7/5 turns out.

Lauren met with the therapist again this past week, it’s been good for her because as much as family and friends and myself continue to give her positive feedback, it’s good for her to get an outside perspective on some of her worries. The therapist feels that Lauren is doing great and will meet with her on an as needed basis versus regularly scheduled sessions. Lauren recognizes a lot of her worries are fears of the unknown with each next chapter we face, so the meetings with the therapist will help to combat those fears, as they arise.

We appreciate everyone’s willingness to read our blog and even inquire when we plan on updating it. It’s heartwarming to hear when someone tells us that they’ve read the blog, so please continue to share with us if we’ve made you laugh, cry, or become more educated – as that is our goal and it helps us to continue to talk about this journey.

To make light of the situation regarding Lauren’s hair, and please note, I have permission to talk about it. 😁 She still might be beating me with total hair count on her head, but the chemo medication has done some strange things naturally. She has a few patches of her natural darker colored hair, but looking at her head, she has a ton of what I call baby hair sprouting. Now I’m not sure if those baby hairs fall out and regrow or what’s going on, but I told Lauren she’s channeling her grandfather’s exceptionally good looks, and this is a rebirth of what’s to come for her. We are both curious to see what the next round of meds will do to the hair, and especially what her hair will be like when she is done with chemo, but for now, I call her ‘grandpa.’