The Reed Report - Phil's Medical Journey

Today was my 6th and FINAL chemo treatment. Praise the LORD! I felt excellent going into chemo again, even after our trip to visit my Dad and Step-Mom last week. We left home about 7:45 AM, and it was only 5 degrees. Denise has a pain in the ball of her left foot (learned the next day that it was gout, which her parents both have had multiple times). That meant that today I pushed HER in a wheelchair for my appointments at the hospital. That was a switch from two months ago, when she was pushing me. Shortly after 8 AM, I had blood drawn for labs. This time my PICC line flushed just fine. The dressing was also changed, and there was some debate about pulling the PICC line after this final chemo was finished. Today we talked to the doctor about when we could possibly plan on returning to Ukraine. He thinks that we should wait until June - which was what we were thinking. It is exciting to even think about the possibility. How we miss being among the people that we love so much. And they ...

The first couple of days after chemo, I felt off and had trouble with nausea. I am thankful that there is medicine to counteract the nausea, even though it does not bring me back to feeling 100%. My appetite is almost gone, food does not appeal to me, and I just feel "off" during this time. This time the nausea again cleared up before day 4. So thankful! This fifth cycle post-chemo was much like the other times around, only better. The first week following chemo I was tired (though I seldom napped) and felt a little lousy (though not as bad as previous times, probably because I was feeling so good before chemo). The next week I felt better, even though my immune system was recovering from being so low. The third week I felt even better, once my immune system was back and in preparation for the final round of chemo. During this time being home, I was able to enjoy most of the college football bowl games and all the NFL playoff games. What a treat for me to be able to watch foo...