Two weeks later - October 21

So, it's been two weeks since Beverly finished her treatment!  What's happened in that time?  Not much, honestly.  Which is good.  Boring is good at this point.  

She's been at home with various people being with her - Jill, sister Liz, BFF Caroline, Chris, and sister Sue next week.  She continues to enjoy having people with her all the time...well, maybe not so much, but since the doctors say it is necessary, she's being a good sport about it.

Meanwhile, her appetite isn't much better, although she's decided that buttery eggs taste pretty good.  She mentioned this morning that she might try buttery noodles later today.  She has also decided that the $1 fountain cokes from Mickey D's are one of the best things ever - thanks to Jill for introducing her to that delicacy!  And heck, it's calories, so why not?

Bev also had a follow up appointment with her Oncologist last week.  Nothing terribly exciting there, more of same with trying to get calories in, resting enough, and so on.

So, for now, things are kinda hanging steady.  The first couple of weeks of November will be a little busier in the news division cause she has scans and labs and appointments.

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers, especially that food will start to be appealing again.  She's so tired of not wanting to eat, and for someone who enjoys cooking and loves to eat, this is really hard on her.  Please also keep her family in your prayers, especially that the on-going stress of all of this won't cause hurt and issues with relationships that cannot be recovered from.

We'll post again in the next week or two unless something really interesting happens before then.

LAST DAY OF TREATMENT!!!!!! - October 7

She did it!  30 trips to Emory for radiation and 42 doses of chemo later, she's done with that brutal 6 weeks!!  HOORAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth even more.  Enjoy!!!  (You're gonna have to tilt your head to watch it - can't figure out how to get it oriented correctly!)

 

Three to go! - October 2

Twenty seven down, three to go.  Yessss!!!!

Had the weekly visit with Dr. McFavorite today - won't see him for a whole month now!  He said if all Beverly wants to eat is ensure, ice cream, and peanut butter - well, so be it! The goal is to get at least 1100 calories into that body and we don't much care how they get there just so long as they do.  Well, Beverly was most relieved and delighted to hear that and let me know that I can quit trying to find foods that she'll eat - she'll do just fine on her shakes and peanut butter, thankyouverymuch. :-)  He did say that within just a few weeks after radiation ends, her taste buds will start coming back and they will get better and better pretty quickly after that.  So, milkshakes it is!

He also discussed the fatigue that she can expect to experience for the next few weeks.  He wants her to rest, but he does not want her to just stay in bed - his words were "you just have to stay active and push through this until it starts getting better".  She took those words to heart - as soon as we got home, she took her milkshake and went for a nice walk around her property.  Hopefully the Africa hot weather has subsided for the year and it won't be so miserable outside so she can get out a wee bit more and move around!

On the way home from Emory, Beverly treated herself to an iPod and tonight we're going to load it up with books and music for her listening pleasure.  (Now is when you picture Beverly rockin' out with her earbuds in!)

So, that's the news for today - all good, all in order, and all moving in the right direction!!

Holy Cow! It's October!

Boy did October sneak up on some of us!!  It's hard to believe that it is well and truly fall already...again...But, October it is and it is a beautiful time of year and life is good!

Beverly has FOUR treatments left - can you believe it?  6 weeks seemed like SUCH a long time when this all started and now she's four trips to Emory away from being finished.  She's pretty excited about that, and looking forward to ringing the bell!  (When patients finish their course of radiation treatments, there is a brass bell that they ring on their way out the door for the last time and everyone - and I do mean everyone - stops what they are doing and applauds and cheers.  It's pretty moving, and quite festive.  So Bev is looking forward to her turn to ring that bell!)

In the meantime, her appetite is really bad.  She's pretty much down to bananas and ice cream in terms of things that taste good to her, and this morning, the banana didn't even taste good to her but she got it down.  She has a bit of a nagging headache, which abated today after she had a smoothie, so our current working theory is that she's hungry.  So.  Gonna try to get her to eat some butternut squash soup later today...maybe some boiled potatoes and butter...and if all else fails, we're gonna have a yummy milkshake made with Ensure, Ice cream, a supplement or two, some caramel - and we might just throw some butter in there for good measure!  (I'm kidding about the butter. Sort of.)

She's now resting on the couch test driving an iPod to see if listening to audio-books is something she would like to do for relaxation since reading is really hard right now. She is in amazing spirits, she's like herself (as opposed to her confused self of a month ago), and it is really, really wonderful to see!!!

Pray for her to get her tastebuds back soon, please!

We'll keep you posted!