Since it's the Thursday after chemo it's easy to guess Cathy is feeling pretty rotten.  The good news is that she feels a little less rotten than last time.  She has a few less things to deal with this time around.  Last time she had port placement surgery on Friday before chemo started on Monday.  Last time she had just finished a course of heavy duty antibiotics because of a breast infection.  Last time that breast infection, due to milk production and no nursing, was still quite painful.  With biota depleted in her gut from the antibiotics and all kinds of pain in the chest area, she started chemo in round 1 with two strikes against her.

This time she is still REALLY tired and kind of nauseous, she doesn't have endless diarrhea and chest pain.  The nausea is predictably worse when she moves around, but like last round and like during pregnancy, Cathy will fight like mad to avoid throwing up.  She is eating more (broth, eggs, toast, oatmeal) than this time last round and is smiling and laughing as much as she can.

Last round she had lots of bone and joint pain that she thought was from the infection because she had a fever.  We now think that it is the side effect of the Neulasta shot.  The doctor told her to take Tylenol morning and evening for a few days whether she thought she needed it or not to avoid this pain.  So far, so good on that one.


In the second week of the last round Cathy told me to say, "Remember Tuesday."  This time she told me to say, "Tylenol works."