Treatment #3 DONE!

Sorry this is such a late entry. The month of May has been so busy and it isn't even close to be over yet. I had my third treatment on Wednesday, April 29th. The "after effects" were about the same as the second treatment which was much better than the first treatment....fatigue, neck ache, headache...but still no nausea and vomiting. Once again, I have been so very blessed when it comes to those two side effects. I know there are many others who are so terribly ill and some who even have to stop the treatments because they are so sick.
During my last treatment my nephew Tony and his wife Stacey stopped by to see us. This time Cindy and William came by to see us. Of course Cindy provided entertainment for the staff. The one observation that everyone makes is that it is unbelievable how many people are there receiving chemo. It is rather un-nerving.
The next treatment will be the last of the first 4 and that is significant because then we switch drugs. Dr. Alex tells us that generally the first 4 treatments are the roughest for 90% of the patients and the 2nd course of 4 treatments are much easier. I'm hoping she is right and that I'm not one of the 10% who have a rougher time with the 2nd 4 treatments. My hope is that with the second 4 treatments they will wonder if they are giving me water instead of chemo! (Is that too optimisitic?) Well, I guess we will see in a few weeks. My 1st treatment of round 2 should be June 1st.
It seems that with each visit I notice something different...it's probably because the patient population is so diverse...but this time I seemed to focus on that fact that there were an awful lot of people there alone.....young, old, men, women....elderly people in wheel chairs waiting for chemo and had to rely on hospital staff to push them because they wasn't any family or friends, young people sitting in the waiting room alone, and a significant number of both men and women in correctional facility orange accompanied only by a sheriff's deputy.....when I mentioned it to Neal he did remind me that there was a reason they were wearing orange and logically I know that ..... but I thought how terrible it would be to go through something like that and have nobody there with you and then to go to a nursing home or correctional facility instead of your home..... ironically, last week (the week before my treatment on the 29th) at Mass, one of the prayers was for the lonely....so once again I go with divine intervention over coincidence.....thank you for your continued prayers and support....I know it is making a difference in my treatments.