What's going on?

This pic is from book club when we had Tasha (the author) here live in person, at Rad and John's home up here on our mountain...

Hello friends/family,

Apologies for not keeping up with this... I heard from so many people that they couldn't get into the other site, so I sort of let it fall off until I found time to get this one going...

So - where are we now?

Since the first treatment, Dottie was doing really well for the first week post-treatment. Then things got a little tough, and she had sever leg/bone pain. After a weekend of this horrible pain, she reached out to her doctor, and they prescribed Claritin - of all things! She was having trouble sleeping as well, and the Claritin seemed to do the trick for her on both fronts. The pain subsided, and the sleeping seemed to come back to somewhat normal.

The last week before the second treatment - she was feeling really pretty good! The second round was on Monday, June 15th & the 16th. This all happens down in Kennesaw - about an hour and a 1/2 from where we live (I assume everyone knows we live next door to them in Ellijay). We joined them for the first night down at the hotel, and we were able to sit with them with the Doctor, and the first part of her treatment. The facility is quite nice, and the people there are extra nice!

This round went much faster then the first time she go the treatment... they did it really slow last time to see how she did. She apparently did great, because it took about half the time this round. So - they have worked with their schedule and they will only have to stay at the hotel for one night, and then go back the second day a little later in the day to get the last dose of chemo.

She is feeling OK now but just quite tired. She is trying to not be in public too much due to being immuno-compromised, so she had to miss book club this past Sat night - they called in to hear the discussion but it is hard for our social butterfly to not be able to get out socially as much as before.

She is also finding the balance between the constipation and the other end of the spectrum - sometimes Miralax and other things work much better than intended!

They have given her some mouthwashes to try and get rid of the metallic taste in her mouth, which isn't too bad just yet, but it is there slightly. As time goes on, we anticipate this just continuing and her figuring out her flow in this new space. It certainly is a journey, and as much as "they" try and mitigate all the symptoms and head off any nausea, pain, bad taste, and exhaustion - it still comes - maybe a bit more slight than it would without all these tools/meds, but it comes nonetheless.

That's the latest from our end. If you want to reach out to Dottie directly, I am sure she would love to hear from you. The beginning and the first round of treatment was all a bit overwhelming for her, but she has now settled into this new space a bit, and is still cooking in her kitchen, she is tending to all her plants and getting crazed by little rodents who are stealing her Shishito peppers that are growing next to the basil on her back porch.... don't mess with Dottie's Shishito Peppers!!!!!

Until next time....

xoxo