Round 4 *ding ding* Ready yourself for some Bon Jovi...

WHOAAAAAAA we're halfway there! This song has been stuck in my head all day and that is completely okay with me because 1) I'm halfway through my chemo! and 2) who doesn't love Bon Jovi???

I started my day with my Thursday finger prick. I think I've been remiss and failed to mention that each and every Thursday, I go in and get stuck so they can check my blood levels. It's not like it's horribly painful or anything like that, but it does get pretty monotonous: "Hey, Jayme, what's your name and date of birth?" (Not kidding, they address me by name but then have to ask for my name!) Go sit down and wait to get called. Wait. Wait some more. Secretary calls back and reminds them that I'm here, so someone finally comes to get me (this is the only drawback of having the last appointment of the day: they think they're already done and forget about me!) Step on the scale. Cringe. Sit down. Review current medications. No, they have not changed in the 6 days since I last saw you. Take my blood pressure. Cringe (though actually, it's been really good lately!). Stick the thermometer in my hear. Ask for the reading because they never offer to tell you. Have my finger milked like a cow's udder. Here comes the stick; don't look! Always look at the last minute because that's how I roll. Have my finger milked some more, this time with blood coming out. Try not to stare. Fail miserably. Have a gauze square put on my finger, get handed my red folder and sent on my way. EVERY THURSDAY! (Sorry, I wasn't aware that that little rant was brewing, but it feels really good to get it out!)

I had a pretty brief meeting with the oncologist (this is routine before every chemo treatment). She showed me the lab reports from my CT scan and my tumor shrunk from over 9 1/2 cm to 5 cm! She said she was hoping for more so that I'd only have to do 6 treatments, but I had been planning on 8 from the beginning, so that wasn't too disheartening. She's ordered another PET scan after the 13th (gotta love insurance!) to see what kind of "reduction in activity" the chemo is causing and that will give us more information about how well it's working! Yay for all that! I did have to bring up the numbness I have in my fingertips. This is a pretty new thing and I just wanted to make her aware that it's happening. She told me that it's a side effect of the Vencristine (one of my chemo drugs) and that if it's still happening before the next treatment, she'll have to back down the dose or else the "neuropathy can become permanent." Yikes!

I am very happy to report that round 4 was uneventful. No contortions on my part today! They used a different needle (the 1 inch) to access my port. Going in was not as quick and easy as the pop-out kind because she has to push it in until she hits the back of the port, but we had absolutely NO problems today, so I'll take that every time! I absolutely love the nurses who work there! I had some really great conversations about crafting, birthday party planning (and found out that I'm not the only one who starts planning six or more months out!), and DMB. I made a ton of yo-yos for headbands and hair clips. I graded some papers, lesson planned, graphed some data. That is one good thing about the chemo: it makes me sit down and do things that I keep putting aside!