Mom and Peg

Well, for anyone who is worried about how well Mom has been handling the first week of her second cycle of chemo (including me!), take a look at this photo of Peg and Mom having dinner last night at Shari's. Except for her questionable taste in restaurants, I'd say she's doing pretty well.

Eat lots of irons!

After a very difficult Tuesday, Mom has perked up considerably. She’s now lively and alert, the tremors have diminished to almost nothing, and she has even been able to take walks around the block, accompanied by Bro Bill. (He came over from Wenatchee for a few days when he heard that some additional assistance might be in order. Definitely a mensch!) Mom herself has said that while Tuesday was a 3 on a scale of 1-10, Wednesday was a 6.5 and today so far is a 7.

We’ve agreed that Monday, with about six hours of doctors’ appointments, including the chemo, was just too much. Next time, no double or triple scheduling.

Both Peg and Bill have been making sure that mom eats lots of red meat, dark green veggies and red grapes to shore up her low red blood cell count; she got steak Tuesday and pot roast with veggies last night. My frequent text messages to Bill advocating that she eat foods high in iron has led him to take a very humorous take on the topic:

It feels good to laugh.

"Tell Mom her lunch is ready."





"Getn dinr ready"

An intermission--and then the next round begins

The past week continued to be a slow one for our lovely Rita. She just didn't have any energy, even upon getting up in the morning. In fact, after breakfast and taking her pills, she would usually take a nap. This is very unlike her usual behavior.

It has been so cold and gloomy here that only the forsythia has been brave enough to bloom. But the weekend offered our first real spring weather. On Saturday, we pulled the lawn chairs out of storage and basked happily in the 77-degree sunshine, picnic-ing on chicken and spinach salads. A few tulips finally poked their heads out along with us. Both of us were all smiles about finally getting some blue sky and warm sun.

She made a decision this weekend: Rita Williams will not be doing Bloomsday 2008 (the 7.5 mile marathon in Spokane that regularly attracts 40,000-60,000 people). This breaks a nearly un-broken 23+ year streak. Instead, she and Peg will play the support roles of cook and chauffeur while Bill and I carry the family banner. I expect Mom will enjoy the Bloomsday experience almost as much from the sidelines, though. It really is an exciting festival, and she hasn’t been able to see it from that perspective in a long, long time. I just hope she doesn't pilfer my finisher's t-shirt afterwards.

So, as to the most recent past, yesterday, April 14, began the second cycle of chemotherapy. On Sunday, Peg had met Mom and me in Colfax, the halfway mark between the L-C Valley and Spokane, and Mom continued up to Spokane with her. Peg went with Mom to her two appointments yesterday, the chemo in the late morning and then an eye exam in the early afternoon. I haven't heard the details yet, but Peg did text me that these two appointments took SIX hours. Yipes! I bet they were both very tired when that was over.

Peg's text message also mentioned that Mom's blood test showed some anemia--which explains the muscle weakness--so they gave her some sort of booster before administering the poisons. I'll post more about that when I get more information, or maybe Peg will. I haven’t heard whether Mom has suffered any other effects of the chemo, like nausea, but will post on that soon.

Mom has said that she thinks she may be beginning to lose some hair, too. After she washed her hair on Saturday, she said that there was more hair than usual in the drain. If she is losing hair, though, it isn't noticeable at this point. We haven't talked wigs yet, but I would like to see her as a redhead. Any other recommendations?