All posts by Sherry

Onward

February 5, 2023JournalSherry

Sunday, February 5, 2023

Although I’m not yet feeling “normal” I am working hard to get there. Still no appetite no matter what Pat tempts me with. When I feel like I should eat something I’m having an Ensure or a few nuts and maybe some fruit. I do eat an occasional meal. Pat made me egg and toast one morning for breakfast and that filled me for the rest of the day; today I had a bowl of oatmeal.

I know I need more exercise and we are trying to get out for walks even when the weather isn’t nice. It was rainy all morning but the sun has come out so we may get out later this afternoon. I just can’t face walking on the treadmill for some reason; if the weather doesn’t cooperate I’m going to have to get over that.

I’m not sleeping well, except for the night when I had a low-grade fever and took a couple of Tylenol. Last night, after a long walk and no naps, I didn’t sleep any better so I think that, fever or not, I’m going to take Tylenol before bed tonight as I’m already nervous about tomorrow.

Tomorrow I start my next round of chemo. A new drug with concerns about allergic reactions. Before I get the actual drug I’ll be getting several anti-allergy meds and then they watch me to see if I have any reactions. I’m not looking forward to the ordeal but once it is done it is one step closer to the end. I will have to continue with the white blood cell injections but I don’t know what additional meds I might have to have.

Onwards and upwards.

Updated Treatment Plan

February 1, 2023JournalSherry

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

I had an appointment with my family doctor yesterday morning. All is fine and he had a note in his file saying they weren’t going to do my 4th chemo round but were going to move on to the second series.

Then, late yesterday afternoon, we had a call from my doctor at the Vancouver Cancer Clinic. I’m not sure if it was my recent hospital stay but my case had been a topic for a conference. After either reviewing (or redoing) the pathology report they have decided I don’t have the more aggressive HER2 cancer.

What this means going forward is that I will get only one drug for the next four rounds of chemo rather than 3 different drugs. It also means that I won’t be needing the expensive drug we were going to pay for on our own.

I will still require the three weeks of radiation in Vancouver but following radiation I won’t require the next round of 13 chemo treatments. After radiation I think I’m done.

Thanks to everyone who has kept me in their thoughts and prayers. This is good news!

The Valley of Amazement

January 31, 2023BooksSherry

Author: Amy Tan

This might be the best Amy Tan book yet. The story follows three generations of women, two of whom are courtesans in the most exclusive houses in Shanghai. The story spans more than forty years with the struggles of first the mother, Lulu, and then those of her daughter, Violet.

Each mother loses her child at some point but by the end of the book the three generations have been reconnected.

Goodreads Rating: * * * * *

The Heart’s Invisible Furies

January 31, 2023BooksSherry

Author: John Boyne

Long before we discovered that he had fathered two children by two different women, one in Drimoleague and one in Clonakilty, Father James Monroe stood on the altar of the Church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, in the parish of Goleen, West Cork, and denounced my mother as a whore.

With an opening paragraph like that you are drawn into the book from the very beginning. Told mainly from the point of view of Cyril, the very reason his mother was ousted from her home and village, he is adopted by a fairly well-to-do family but it was always acknowledged the he is their adopted son and they were his adopted parents, not a “real Avery”.

The book follows the tormented life of a gay man in Ireland, as well as a better life in Amsterdam and the United States. At the end of his life Cyril returns to Ireland to find that not a lot has changed.