Day 7: Rough start, smooth finish

After a brutal night of hourly wakings with the baby, my belly continued to rage a war with me this morning. My mom took Cooper down for breakfast and to keep him busy til the sitter arrived so that I could go back to bed and I took some meds and went back to sleep til about 10:30 am or so. Once I was up I was feeling better and managed to even brave the heat (again 104 here today) to run a couple of quick errands with the help of my parents. The fast fatigue factor stayed with me today - I was leaning on a shopping cart within 5 minutes of entering the store and wanting to get out of there as soon as possible just so I could sit down. But my stomach seemed to be behaving - at least for a while. By evening I was feeling better - still tired, but belly not burning anymore - and we enjoyed a nice dinner. It was still too hot to do my walking so I didn't make it up from yesterday and that bothers me - but I have to be realistic, and forgiving, of myself as I adjust to what is happening to my body - especially if I haven't gotten enough sleep the night before. But I am working on back-up planning since the sleep issue will happen from time to time - after all, I have a 13-month old in the house. I need to do my walking somehow, so I'm working on a plan to ensure I get back-up sleep time, and back-up walk time when plan A goes awry. We figured out why Cooper's sleep is messed up right now - he's getting a molar tooth. So we're hopeful that the pre-bedtime Motrin dose and teething tablets will help him sleep a longer stretch so that I will too. If he does better tonight and I'm not wiped out by morning, then I'll go take my walk in the morning when the sitter arrives. If not, I'll go back to bed and do the walk in the evening. Anyway...it's amazing how I went from project managing multi-faceted work projects to being barely able to get the right amount of rest and stamina to do just basic things (like the dishes or carrying Cooper up to bed) that I once took for granted. I'm going to need to put my creative problem solving skills back to work asap to come up with a gameplan for how things will get done while I continue treatment and how I will reintegrate back to work too. It's amazing how one can go from being non-stop on the go to struggling to stand after a short casual stroll through a store in just a matter of days. Anyway, Cooper is asleep and I should be too. But before I log off, I want to say that I'm so proud and relieved to have gotten through this first 7 days of chemotherapy with relatively minimal side effects. Sure, I've had some discomfort and fatigue - but it was not as bad as I had expected it to be - just different. I'm holding fast to my warrior status. Can you hear me roar? LOL :) I couldn't have gotten through it without the love and support of so many wonderful family members and friends. My folks have been amazing - I'm so blessed and lucky they are here for me - thank you! My friends - near and afar - have been tremendously supportive - thank you so much. I love you and appreciate the support, the prayers, the cards, the humor - everything you're doing that is helping me to get through this. Good night!