July 7 Update

 7-7-2022 Update

Happy July to everyone.  Hope everyone had a great holiday spending time with friends and family and came out unscathed with all limbs and appendages intact.  Lauren and I spent the holiday enjoying our new outdoor dining table umbrella and I barbequed a nice fillet for me and some nasty sea creature (shrimp) for Lauren, played a little Jenga giant, and prepared for Lauren’s Tuesday’s infusion.  From this point on, for the next twelve sessions, Lauren will be having an infusion once a week versus once every other week.  The anxiousness of the new treatment plan weighed on us as we became accustomed to the regiment of infusions occurring every other week, a few days of her feeling like shit, and then a solid week of trying to live a normal life.

 

Tuesday started out like the other days driving down PCH to Keck Medicine in Newport Beach.  We were on time, checked in at the front desk and was kindly reminded that the staff was running a little behind because of the holiday.  It was expected, doctors, nurses, and all support staff are humans, and I would hope they would be able to enjoy some aspect of their life outside of treating cancer patients.  Up to this point, the longest we had ever waited in the lobby was no more than 15-20 minutes, Tuesday, we had waited for an hour and forty-five minutes.  Already we were getting exhausted, and the procedure hadn’t even started.  No meetings with the oncologist scheduled this week, so no other updates from that front.

 

We finally get situated to our favorite “pod” where the process always starts with Lauren’s blood draw to go over her vitals and to make sure there aren’t any issues with her platelets and white blood cells that would prevent her from getting treatment. All results came back within an acceptable range. The new treatment plan is entirely different medication from the previous infusion. Lauren is now receiving intravenously Paclitaxel (Taxol) and Carboplatin, which according to the Mayo clinic, in laymen’s terms, they both state the following, “…belongs to the group of medicines called antineoplastics. It interferes with the growth of cancer cells, which are eventually destroyed.” Before the infusion of the two medications started, Lauren was given a syringe of Benadryl. One might ask why Benadryl? Apparently, the medications Lauren was about to receive may trigger some histamines in her body and good ole Benadryl to the rescue. As one nurse stated, “At least you’ll be able to relax because you were just slipped a Beny”. 🥴  The amount of fluids in the IV bags were significantly smaller, however the rate of flow the medicine was entering Lauren’s body was much slower than before. It was a seriously tiring and long day. We left our house at 9:45 AM and finally left the facility at around 4:45 PM. The drive home, Lauren was knocked out.

I have been keeping an eye on her as this round of treatment is new territory for me and for Lauren.  Lauren has been doing well, the fatigue is not as bad, but she does seem to be getting nauseous a bit more than the previous medication.  We have decided to certify our lovely bitch cat Zoey as a live in nurse.  I think I might fire her because she tends to sleep on the job a lot, shit in this funky box full of sand, and speak some language I can’t seem to understand.  She does seem to do a good job of begging for food, and we are both suckers that cave in.  We love her to death.

 

I can't believe mom put this horrible uniform on me.

Thank you again to all friends and family who check in on us, help us out with daily duties, and who constantly send their love and support.  We can’t thank you enough.

Love,

Chris (no seafood for me) 🤮