As in after “Break Time”, not the parachute pants wearing MC. (Yes, age specific allusion). Time to hammer her system with chemo once again. She is anxious to get back as she feels she has made gains against the cancer sites with the last CT report. Although Kathleen does not regret taking a week off, she doesn’t want to delay any more. Its a difficult decision to make. You have to balance off between killing your whole body with toxic chemicals and giving it all a break. But you cant be selective about what gets the break and what gets the toxic soup. The cancer cells also get a chance to regroup with time off.

Its been a bit of tough week for Kathleen on the pain front. It has not been under control really. We had a meeting with “Team Pain” yesterday. They really are quite earnest in their efforts to help Kathleen try and control her pain and symptoms. The doctor we meet with takes great care to explain to us the reasoning behind his plan of action. I appreciate how he takes the time to make his case to us where some doctors might say, “take these pills, see you next time”, he takes the time to elaborate his thought process in great detail as compared to some doctors we have dealt with. But, the limits of science and medicine are the limits and they can only do so much. Plus, its treating the symptoms, not the elusive cause. She has been on a new pain med, lyrica. Hard to tell if its working. Its not solving the issue of course, but you cant tell if it would be worse without it. Unless we had a control Kathleen (a double entendre there– ‘control’ and ‘kathleen’), we cant tell how effective it is. Its quite possible she would not be able to function without it, or it makes no difference at all. Hard to say.

You can see from the pic she is pretty tired, but the amazing dinner and desert Jan and Elaine made really cheered her up. Sleep has been hard to come by for her at night. A series of unfortunate events as well has kept her up. Two nights ago, a neighbor’s car alarm kept going off through the night. I went out to check, the poor guy was in his housecoat trying to pull various wires without luck. Add some early morning emergency gravols for nasty cramps and near vomiting and it has made for a long week for both of us.

So here we are again, in “Q” bay.

You can see the effects of the lyrica and the new type of subcue ports on her arm with the bruising. More side effects to the side effects to consider.

And now back in the chemo cave with her guardian cat

—Mike