21DSD Day 8 - Chemo

Well folks, I'm back in Atl to be with my parents for this next round of chemo. Yesterday we just took things easy. We took the dogs for two walks, finished one puzzle, and watching Rise of the Guardians and Resident Evil: Resurrection. I really enjoyed the first one. I thought it was super cute and funny. Resident Evil was a bit of a let down though. I've been a faithful Resident Evil since I watched the second film during my senior year of high school, probably slightly becasue of the movie itself, but mainly because of the good memories I associate with it. (Yes, you heard that right. Zombie movie = good times. I'm weird, right?) Anywho, we stayed busy, while still taking it easy. I whipped up some steak and roasted Brussels sprouts for dinner.

And got to use my parents' handy Wustof Silverpoint steak knives. Yep, they copied me because of how much I raved about my set.

Today we spent about 4 hours at the facility, which is a lot less than what we expected. The doctors started the chemo drip slowly (50 mL/h, then 100, 150, 200, and 300 after 30-minute intervals) in order to watch for any signs of allergic reaction, which of course kicked in after about 45 minutes. The allergic reaction we got today was a "weird-feeling," slightly itchy throat. We notified the nurse (Vanessa is really helpful), and they paused the chemo and started up a steroid drip to stop the reaction. The doctor basically told the nurse to use whatever drugs (steroids, anti-nausea, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, etc.) she thought we needed, considering all of the issues we encountered with the supposedly "nicer" chemo drug. After the steroid we progressed without a hitch.

We then headed home to start a new puzzle, (maybe you can tell that we like puzzles?), and eat a late lunch. We brought some food to snack on while we were at the doctor's office, but it didn't count as a meal. I brought a sugar-free chicken-andouille sausage, some proscuitto, and a mixture of almonds, pistachios, pecans, and pumpkin seeds.

After about an hour working on the puzzle, we took a nap break because some light-headedness and tiredness had set in. We checked temperature and blood pressure just to make sure there wasn't any fever, which is a concern if it goes over 100 F, or anything like that. I headed back to the puzzle after placing a trash can next to the bed just in case and leaving the yorkies in the room to "keep an eye on things" (Yes. The two 8-lb dogs are worriers and will stick close by when they know something isn't quite right.) A couple hours later, we were pulling together some dinner before calling it an early night, with some Benadryl to hopefully prevent any other possible side effects.

In summary, things are going well so far. Fingers crossed that the good continues!

And just to leave you with some comfort food, here's a garden vegetable soup recipe I made last week:

Garden Vegetable Soup

4 cups vegetable broth

1 cup tomato puree

3/4 cup water

1 14-oz can diced tomatoes

1 14-oz. can tomato puree

2 cups carrots, sliced

2 cups celery, sliced

1 red pepper, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbls olive oil

1 small yellow onion, diced

1. Toss everything into a large stock pot. Heat over medium-high heat on the stove for 2 hours.

Man, again with the one-step recipes. Awesome, right?