Another one bites the dust - my penultimate Chemo!! (7)

Well I can barely believe that I now only have ONE CHEMO TO GO!!!!! My goodness, when I think about it, it fills my heart and my body with so much excitement I cannot tell you!

All went ok yesterday...... I went for my blood test earlier as I always do and I knew it was a good sign when the nurse got the needle in the vein on the first attempt........ I joked with her and asked if she wanted to come to the Wesley with me and put my chemo needle in but obviously she couldn't .......

My luck continued when I had a nurse I haven't had before and I have to say that the most anxious part of having chemo has been getting the needle over the past few times, as it has taken up to 4 times to get it in and they are quite large and painful!!! But she got it in first go and I was delighted!!!!

Before that though, there was a minor drama...... my oncologist is on holidays so I was assigned another one. He came to see me as I was asking about my feet and he said they still look really bad (I have barely any normal skin on the bottom of my feet as it has all come off and it looks very unattractive!!!)....... I wanted to know if there was anything I could do to avoid getting yet another foot infection and when he looked at them he said "oh, let's cancel today's treatment, those feet need more time to recover!!!" Now I'm sure you can ALL imagine what I was thinking ..... I have planned my treatment around xmas and being well enough to attend my cousin's wedding in January so there was no way at this late stage that I was going to postpone treatment, meaning I wouldn't finish in early January!!!!!

Anyway we negotiated that I would have half the dosage of the chemo drug AND the bonus of this is that I won't need to have an extra treatment or anything (why haven't you given me this dosage the entire time I was thinking!!!!)...... so I am now still on track to finish on 7 Jan which is only three weeks away and I cannot wait!

I think I may get the foot infection but they said this is one of the side effects of docetaxel and there is little I can do..... so I'm hoping it's not as painful as last time but we'll see......I have my antibiotics ready to go in case it does return.....

The good news is that my white blood cells were the highest they have been for the entire time..... they jumped from 3.4 to 7.1 from last treatment to this one; great news! My red cells on the other hand are getting very low now and they have gone from 122 - 101 from the start to now so I may need to have a blood transfusion on my last session if I go any lower (fingers crossed I won't need it and I'm thinking some good aussie xmas cheer may increase the count!!)

Yesterday was the last session with my mum taking me which was nice...... we had some good laughs and I was teasing her a bit so it was a bit of fun.......we said on the way out; well, this will be the last time we experience this together - THANK GOODNESS!!!!!!

I've had a very sleepless night but today I'm not feeling too bad...... I feel worse than I have on both of the previous treatments for some weird reason (I thought half the amount would mean half the pain!!!!) but I'm ok and far far better than I was on my first few treatments....

So here is to a quick recovery and a lovely Xmas day! I wish you all a wonderful Xmas and I love you all lots and lots....... I realise this journey has not just been mine, but all of my friends and family's and as we are now coming to the end of it, I can actually begin to imagine what life will be like feeling well again..... let's just say I will continue to smell the roses and ensure that every day brings me love, laughter and happiness wherever I am....... and I will be making the most of every single day and treasuring it because it brings me good health and so many amazing friends and loving people around me...... I am very lucky!

Merry Xmas to my beautiful friends

xxxx