First and foremost I neglected in my last post to mention a HUGE event that happened on Thanksgiving. For those who don't know me well, I have always had long hair. I have chopped it off a few times--like when I left for the Peace Corps I cut off 26 inches. Always donating it to Locks of Love. As I will be losing my hair with chemo, I thought I might as well donate what I have before it goes to waste. My hair isn't currently as long as normal, just barely half way down my back. Which for me, is medium length. My sister-in-law is a hair dresser and my 18 year old niece is in beauty school. My sister-in-law did the cutting and my niece the color. That's right color! I have never in my life colored my hair. It is dark brown, and aside from making it darker, coloring would require bleaching. I have always been way to anal about how healthy my hair is to let bleach anywhere near it. But, I decided as its all going to fall out, might as well go out with style.
We cut off 15 inches, more then I expected. My sister-in-law gave me an a-line bob (not sure how you write that). It's nice to have less hair to worry about. Not that I ever put much effort into my hair. I have long hair so I can wear it in braids, ponytails, and buns. :) My niece put purple, teal, and silver stripes in my hair. My son LOVES my hair. He is fascinated that it is colorful. I pull it all in front of my face and say, "I can't see, where are you?" He loves it. He clears my hair out of my face and asks to do it again. My husband, always a fan of my long hair and a proponent for not cutting it, likes it as well. Good thing as its going to be short for a while! Really short as it grows out. Right now, is the shortest my hair has been since I was an infant. Post chemo will be a new experience in how people with short hair function!!
As the title of this post suggests, I went back to work. Not so much TO work but working. I am very blessed to have a job where I can telework. So much is done on Skype. We have team members in our main office in Arlington, VA, as well as in Massachusetts, North Carolina, and California. As my immune system is low, and it is flu season, I have to be really careful. I already live with a 2 year old petri-dish, going to an office would be VERY bad. In a 3 week chemo cycle, the middle week is called your Nadir. It is the week when your white blood cell counts are lowest and you need to be most careful. I hardly set foot out of the house all that week. The next week I ventured to the office, wearing a mask, to sit in on our team meeting. Wearing a mask makes me feel claustrophobic--i hate breathing hot air. But, the LAST thing I need is to be sick and have to postpone a treatment. It was nice to get out and see people.
I have to work at least 60% time to keep my health insurance, so that means I get 5 days off for each cycle of chemo. The cycle is 3 weeks long. This first time, working was harder then expected. I can't be sure if its the pregnancy or the chemo, or the disastrous combo of the two--but my brain is a bit fuzzy. As both are known to make you feel a bit off mentally, the two together is just rude. Its hard to focus--and then being exhausted and sick, well it was harder. The third week things began to improve. I could feel myself getting stronger. My blood work came back from my first chemo. My immune system bounced back just fine--all normal. My red blood cell count dropped a bit. Small amount. Not because of lack of iron, but because my bone marrow is not keeping up with increased need for red blood cells. But it was a minor drop. They'll keep an eye on it as I progress through more treatments. It is a bit more of a concern for me, being pregnant anemia can have an impact on my growing baby. If things get bad, I will need a blood infusion. But that would be months down the road.
Speaking of baby, we had our 20 week ultrasound. The baby is growing very well, is perfectly healthy. We had an extensive ultrasound, and everything checked out. And--we learned its a boy. A healthy baby boy. :) We also learned that this little boy will have more doctors appointments then me before he is born. For now, he will be checked every 2 weeks, once by my OB then 2 weeks later by a neonatologist. Then, after 28 weeks pregnancy he will be checked every week! Busy busy boy. But, I know he is in great hands.
As my 3rd week of my first cycle of chemo comes to an end, I prepare for number 2 and wonder what will be different in the next round.
We cut off 15 inches, more then I expected. My sister-in-law gave me an a-line bob (not sure how you write that). It's nice to have less hair to worry about. Not that I ever put much effort into my hair. I have long hair so I can wear it in braids, ponytails, and buns. :) My niece put purple, teal, and silver stripes in my hair. My son LOVES my hair. He is fascinated that it is colorful. I pull it all in front of my face and say, "I can't see, where are you?" He loves it. He clears my hair out of my face and asks to do it again. My husband, always a fan of my long hair and a proponent for not cutting it, likes it as well. Good thing as its going to be short for a while! Really short as it grows out. Right now, is the shortest my hair has been since I was an infant. Post chemo will be a new experience in how people with short hair function!!
As the title of this post suggests, I went back to work. Not so much TO work but working. I am very blessed to have a job where I can telework. So much is done on Skype. We have team members in our main office in Arlington, VA, as well as in Massachusetts, North Carolina, and California. As my immune system is low, and it is flu season, I have to be really careful. I already live with a 2 year old petri-dish, going to an office would be VERY bad. In a 3 week chemo cycle, the middle week is called your Nadir. It is the week when your white blood cell counts are lowest and you need to be most careful. I hardly set foot out of the house all that week. The next week I ventured to the office, wearing a mask, to sit in on our team meeting. Wearing a mask makes me feel claustrophobic--i hate breathing hot air. But, the LAST thing I need is to be sick and have to postpone a treatment. It was nice to get out and see people.
I have to work at least 60% time to keep my health insurance, so that means I get 5 days off for each cycle of chemo. The cycle is 3 weeks long. This first time, working was harder then expected. I can't be sure if its the pregnancy or the chemo, or the disastrous combo of the two--but my brain is a bit fuzzy. As both are known to make you feel a bit off mentally, the two together is just rude. Its hard to focus--and then being exhausted and sick, well it was harder. The third week things began to improve. I could feel myself getting stronger. My blood work came back from my first chemo. My immune system bounced back just fine--all normal. My red blood cell count dropped a bit. Small amount. Not because of lack of iron, but because my bone marrow is not keeping up with increased need for red blood cells. But it was a minor drop. They'll keep an eye on it as I progress through more treatments. It is a bit more of a concern for me, being pregnant anemia can have an impact on my growing baby. If things get bad, I will need a blood infusion. But that would be months down the road.
Speaking of baby, we had our 20 week ultrasound. The baby is growing very well, is perfectly healthy. We had an extensive ultrasound, and everything checked out. And--we learned its a boy. A healthy baby boy. :) We also learned that this little boy will have more doctors appointments then me before he is born. For now, he will be checked every 2 weeks, once by my OB then 2 weeks later by a neonatologist. Then, after 28 weeks pregnancy he will be checked every week! Busy busy boy. But, I know he is in great hands.
As my 3rd week of my first cycle of chemo comes to an end, I prepare for number 2 and wonder what will be different in the next round.
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