Today is DAY 9 after chemo... And, so far, we've been pretty lucky. Yesterday was the first day that Harv has felt much of anything more than fatigue. And, those symptoms were the early signs of mouth sores and some stomach upset.

We are armed with a plethora of meds for most any occasion that might come up so when he said he had a mouth sore I said "You need to do the Magic Mouthwash" -- which he did. And, he hated it. It has an intense numbing effect which just doesn't feel good. But, I believe that if we jump on the side effects immediately, we might be in for less intensity of them.

He also complained of (what I will only describe as) upset stomach. So, we jumped on the Immodium right away.  The upset stayed away for most of the day, but he went to bed with stomach cramp-y type stuff. And, neither of us really slept well 'cause his stomach complained all night long.

But, in the wee hours of morning he must've fallen asleep. When he got up, I said "how you doin'?" And, he replied "I feel good.  I had a really good sleep."

Now, for the wife, that's frustrating. Not that he feels good, but that I didn't rest well 'cause I thought he didn't feel good and then he wakes up all "perky!" ☺

Currently, his stomach is still not "right," but I think it's less of a problem than when he went to bed.

This coming Monday will be the last day of the oral chemo for a week. I'm gonna enjoy not giving him pills for seven days. 

This coming Tuesday will have been two weeks since infusion and one week before the next round. If things don't get any worse than they have been, I'm gonna feel pretty lucky. 

For those of you who don't live in Bellingham, we've had quite the snow over the past few days. As you might remember, it started the night before we headed down to have his port installed. More came after we got home and I think it's pretty accurate to say that we have at least a foot of snow on the ground. The girls have been home from school for two days and we're all just a little bit stir-crazy -- some of us more than others. You know your teenager has cabin fever if she WANTS to go back to school. 

Today I hope to get out and run some errands -- just to be able to get out if nothing more.

Thank you for your continued prayers, packages (some of them from "anonymous"), phone calls, cards, letters, e-mails, meals, baked goods, facebook messages, garbage duty, errand running and all around love. What a gift!!

We love you.