no chemo

There was no chemo yesterday. My blood counts were too low. We're going to try again tomorrow (Wednesday). I'm able to get my blood checked in Eden Prairie and if the white blood cells decide to make an appearance we can book it down to Mayo for an injection of cancer fighting potion. My oncologist doesn't want to use the same chemo as the first week (apparently everyone does not get skin rashes and burst eye blood vessels from the stuff - who knew?). We're going to try a new one with the chemo from the 2nd week. That means I'll feel crappier than I did a couple weeks ago. That's the bad news, the good news is that I only have to get this stuff once every 3 weeks. I'll let you know how that goes next week, right now I think it's a great plan because I'll have two weeks of feeling pretty good and one sucky week. Like I said, I'll let you know if that thought lasts through next week.

Guess what I did today! I saw Dr. Gu. That's right acupuncture. When calling to make the appt, Dr. Gu himself answered, which is great, except he doesn't speak English. He studied in Beijing, China, which leads you to believe that he must really know his stuff, but it makes for an interesting phone conversation. It went something like this:
Hi, I'd like to make an appt with Dr. Gu
Ya, I Dr. Gu
Great, do you have any openings for next Tues the 25th?
Tomorrow?
No, Tuesday the 25th, next week.
Ah, next week 24th
No, next week the 25th, Tuesday
Ah, yes, Tuesday the 25th. What time?
How about 10am?
Ya, Ya. Your name?
Liz Solheid, L.I.Z
Lic?
No Liz
Lic?
No Liz, Elizabeth
Ah Liz
Could you give me your address or directions (I know you're thinking this was a bit optimistic, but at this point all I had was the phone number)?
Ya, Ok (then some nervous laughter) then he hung up.

Luckily I was able to find everything I needed on the web and Lisa took me to the appt. I was VERY relieved to see an interpreter when we walked in, so the medical history part was painless. Although Dr. Gu asked me "How are you" and I thought he was asking how old I was so I just volunteered "42" and it took him a minute to figure out that I had misunderstood. The interpreter came back in (he had gone to answer the phone) and we continued on. Dr. Gu heard the history, took my pulse in both arms, looked at my tongue and decided I had a kidney or spleen deficiency and he would have some herbs (there were really sticks) waiting for me after the session. The needles didn't hurt at all, he put them on my back, around the scar on my leg and in my ankles. I felt great after, but I felt pretty good this morning anyway. After making the tea (it tasted horrible, but how do you really think twigs and bark are going to taste), I'm quite sure there is NO way I'll be able to drink it during chemo, but I can't be the first person to tell him this. If I have chemo tomorrow I'll go back on Friday and then we'll really be able to tell if it helps or not. I have enough stick tea to last until Sunday (you drink it twice a day and they are 8oz portions), but it will probably last through mid next week if the chemo taste thing kicks it up a notch.

By the way, Rana made seaweed soup for me this weekend, it was really good! Can you believe all the things I get to try? Mary brought over some Indian food and it tasted good too! Life's an adventure, I'm on for the ride!

Thanks again to all my cancer angels. I could write pages of thank yous and still forget someone. The comments, the letters, the presents, the food, the babysitting, y'all are incredible and I can't say thank you enough!!!!!