I’m a little late to this post, but “better late than never” seems an appropriate theme in our lives right now for a lot of things! (Christmas cards are here! Just been too cold to run them around town. Better late than never though, right?)
Brady completed his eighth chemotherapy cycle on December 30th. He usually starts his medications on the Friday night, which would have been the 24th, which would have been a bummer. But we accept that chemo isn’t really anyone’s ideal, and figured, it was just this Christmas. We could hack it. But at his chemo review appointment a few days before his treatment began, his oncologist said he was welcome to push chemo back until Monday! This was such an excitement for us, just to even have the option!
Brady skipped his usual Friday night kickoff and Saturday night as well. But I realized on Sunday that if we waited until Monday, he would have to fast on New Years Eve! No way, man. We had too many good food plans. So he started his cycle on Sunday and finished it Thursday night. Zero repercussions this time around. Thank you Lord for Your mercy!
The one downfall of this is that we don’t actually know what happens now with the remainder of his cycles. We have to ask if now everything is pushed back, or if no one is really worried about the day or two difference there. Hopefully we can know soon, but as of now, we just celebrate the relief that this last chemo round was smooth, and that its staaaaarting to feel the slightest bit upswingy! Yes. I said upswingy. You get it.
Over Christmas, I continued working on my medications and I am excited to say I am finally off of the initial antidepressant I was on! Sertraline had been an incredible relief for me when I had my hand and shoulder pain, and it had lifted my mental health in such a beautiful way. I am so grateful for sertraline. But it wasn’t cutting it while Brady’s whole story was playing out, and I was on SO MANY MEDS just to keep me afloat. Yesterday was completely sertraline free! I am officially OFF of sertraline, and I’m OFF my sleep aid. All I take now, as of yesterday, is my one antidepressant, as well as stomach protectors that have helped with my heartburn. I don’t have heartburn anymore, but if I just jump off of the medications, my body will go snake and overproduce acid like its going out of style. So while I’m eager to jump off anything I don’t need to be on, I’m speaking to my doctor in a week or two, and we’ll make a plan to get off of those! I’m so happy to have this finally all smooth over!
All of this being said, I had a hard time getting up this morning. As Brady was getting up, I fell back to sleep deep enough to dream, and had the pleasure of reliving Brady’s cancer diagnosis, and then woke up and took the wrong medication for the day because I’m SO used to taking two pills in the morning. Sooooo we’ll see how day two plays out 😆😩I think I’ll stay in…
Maybe everyone should.