Chemo # 2 Tomorrow

Chemo # 2 Tomorrow
7/25/06
Hello all,
It is the evening before my second chemo and I am trying to finish up things that take concentration and/or energy. Tomorrow my doctor plans to give me a larger dose of one of the chemo drugs- Taxitere. Laura, our 21 year old daughter, plans to go with me. We check in at 9:30, have my blood drawn through my port (for which I am still VERY thankful!), see the oncologist at 10-10:30 and then start chemo between 10:30 and 11:00 a.m. The pre-medications took about an hour last time, then Taxitere for an hour and then Cytoxin for 45 minutes with saline to clean things out in between. So we will hopefully be done by around 2 p.m. and home by 2:30-3:00. My white count got low, but not low enough for me to have shots to boost my white count. I haven’t felt great but have done pretty well since the first week.
I should find out tomorrow how many doses I will have. My doctor was researching to see if I should do 4 or 6 cycles- every 3 weeks. Again I would ask you to pray for minimal side effects, and that these medicines will kill any cancer cells that are loose in my body looking for a place to take root and grow. We have a big God and He can surely do this. Pray for me to stay healthy otherwise and for everyone in our family to stay healthy. Greg has a sore swollen gland in his neck today we are keeping an eye on.
Yesterday a place opened up on a team from our church going back to the children’s home in El Salvador we went to last summer. Several from our small group families are going again. The money for this ticket has already been raised, and our 17 year old daughter, Jenni, was asked to go with them. She/we prayed about it overnight and feel that since she has already been there, knows many on the team and at the home, has a valid passport and innoculations, knows some Spanish, can lead worship and has a flexible schedule, we decided to let her go. We feel a peace about it. She filled in all the paperwork and turned it in this morning. They are scheduled to go on Saturday morning 7/29, and return on the following Saturday night. We would really appreciate your prayers for them. And thank you for praying for us through this next cycle. Laura or I will let you know as soon as we can how it goes tomorrow. God bless you! Nancy