GOOD, BETTER and BEST

GOOD - Today was a good, better and best day.  Chemo goes in increments of 3 weeks.  So I finished my first round and today was the start of round 2.  The first day of each 3 week cycle is the heavy duty day.  Today I received 3 drugs; Taxol, Carboplatin and the experimental drug, Avastin.  Each week before they can give me the chemo, they have to take a blood test and see if my red and white blood cells and platelets are high enough.  Last week my levels started looking a little low, so we didn’t know if I would be able to have chemo this week.  I was thrilled to find out that everything looked great and we could proceed.  We got there at 10:30 and finished chemo at 5:15.  It was a long day – actually an enjoyable and relaxing one though.  I appreciate how devoted my sweet husband is.  He insists on taking me to my chemo appointments, even though many have offered.  He is such a great emotional support to me.  We got a seat in the back by ourselves, brought our lunch and talked and read good books all afternoon.  Any day is good when you spend it with those you love.  Here’s a pic of me leisurely lounging and reading while getting chemo.

BETTER – I feel like I got a good report card today.  There is a blood test called CA(Cancer Antigen)-125 that is a tumor marker.  It is kind of like the PSA for men’s prostate.  After I had my initial cat scan and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, they ran a CA-125 on me.  Normal is 0-35, mine was 687!  I then had surgery and on my next CA-125 it was 350 (showing I still had cancer cells floating in my blood).  This week they did another CA-125 and it is now 165!  In only 3 weeks of chemo, it has reduced by 50%.  That means the chemo is working!   I have decided to pray each time they put the chemo in me, that it will kill the necessary cancer cells and it is doing just that.  Yeah!

BEST – Last night was our Relief Society Christmas Dinner.  I had set a goal to go to that no matter what.  Even after getting home at 5:45 from chemo, and after reading a book on how important friends are I went.  My friend Lana came and picked me up at 6:20 and we decided that if I could only stay for half an hour, it was better than nothing.  It’s amazing the medicinal effect my Relief Society sisters had on me.  You would have thought I was a new woman.  At 9:00 Lana came over to me as I was talking to several sisters and said, “Okay, I need to take Michele home before she collapses!”  What a wonderful evening it was.  Here are some pictures we were able to snap that night.