Last night, a Facebook post appeared on my feed announcing Susan ‘s death. It was beautifully written and most of the replies were heartfelt and sweet. One of them, however, from a woman who I knew quite well in high school stunned me. She wrote “did she suffer?” I find that so incredibly offensive and dense. Why would she want to know that and in what universe is that an appropriate response?

 Ugh😫 

In better news, I finally had a bowel movement. Hopefully I will continue to get stronger and more regular over the coming days so I will be at full strength for the trip to bury my dad at Arlington national cemetery.  

Meanwhile, I think I am in my nadir period because it’s a rough day pain wise. To explain,let  me offer up this information found online at Verywellhealth.com.  

The nadir phase starts about 10 days after treatment depending on the drugs you are on. Blood counts will generally get back to normal within three to four weeks.   

 With each chemotherapy treatment comes a nadir period, so people who have frequent treatments may experience lowered counts more often than those whose treatments are spaced further apart. 

Unfortunately, my chemo schedule is usually every 15 days so it doesn’t give me a lot of time to regroup. On the other hand, it does explain why I began to feel so good when we spread the chemo out more. Again, this is something I’ll discuss with my doctor… Quality of life issues.

Looking at my calendar, I am confirming my suspicions. My treatment ended on the 20th and today is the 30th. It’s not hard to do the math.

For anyone unfamiliar with the term… Nadir” is a term that refers to the lowest point of anything.  Regarding chemotherapy, it typically describes the point at which blood cell counts are at their lowest after a chemotherapy treatment.  While chemotherapy directly targets cancer cells, it also affects other normal rapidly dividing cells in the process. This includes cells found in the gut, lining of the mouth, hair, and bone marrow, where the blood cells are produced

During chemotherapy, bone marrow activity may be decreased, resulting in lowered blood cell counts within the body, including red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.

Increasing your consumption of certain healthy meats, fruits, and vegetables can also help boost the body’s natural production of blood cells.5. Protein sources like poultry and fish may promote the production of WBCs. Platelets can be increased by eating foods rich in vitamins B9 and B12.   

There’s those B vitamins again 🙂

Our Dog Trainer, Trish, came to work with us for the second time with Baxter. We both felt like bad little children because we had not practiced with Baxter enough during the week. It reminded me of when I used to take piano lessons and didn’t practice in between lessons. Funny how I never got better 🙂 anyway, I sat on the couch the whole time, while Hans and Trish worked on the place command. We were able to have both dogs stay quietly on their beds while Trish ran around, throwing toys and treats and making other tempting gestures. The real test was when Hans went downstairs and rattled the dog food bowls. Roxy was a natural and kept in place, but Baxter definitely needs some more practice. Hans has promised to work with him twice a day for 30 minutes. Hopefully, I’ll feel well enough to join him.

Later in the afternoon, Judith came over and I found some pain relief by floating in the pool for the hour and a half with her.  I’m pruny,  but I feel better :-). We Reminisced and  sang the mad magazine song “ground round ,”which is sung to the tune of downtown. 

When you eat meat and hate the meat that you’re eating then you surely got -ground round—- it’s so annoying when they’re constantly serving at your eating spot- ground round

 You get the idea…

It’s amazing what memories are stored from our childhood    I find that I remember songs much more easily than other memories. 

In fact, I can sing “Pearly Shells” completely in Hawaiian. I learned it it when we lived in Hawaii when I was in  3rd grade. ….Go figure. 

The pain level tonight is one of the highest I can remember. My stomach is bloated and feels like there’s a fist in the middle of it. Occasionally gurgles burst through, but they caused pain as well. My spine is under attack as well and I’ve gone off to the bedroom to cry and Howl in pain. None of the pain meds seem to be touching this torture tonight. I finally took some RSO about 20 minutes ago and hope that that will work. This really sucks.