3rd Chemo, check check....

First of all... there IS a Chupacabra out here... he/she sounds just like a 45 lb. pit bull! I think he/she belongs to the new neighbors. When I first came out around 5:45 he didn't do anything. But just about the time I started to turn on the laptop he made a few warning sounds. I didn't want him to start making a lot of racket and wake the neighborhood so I just sat in the dark and drank my coffee. There is a huge hedge and about 10 feet of yard between our deck and the fence to the neighbor's house that obstructs his view of me. So as I sat here a huge opossum made his way down the top of the fence line across the alley. When he passed through the pear tree, or crawled out of the pear tree (if I was a opossum I'd be in there eating pears) the Chupacabra caught sight of him and started barking. This was my chance.... I turned on the laptop and fired it up... he never hear the little start-up tone! I feel so sneaky... and for some strange reason he hasn't even noticed my glowing figure over here behind the shrubbery. Those Chupacabras are not a bright as we may have thought.

To the business at hand- Hubby had his 3rd treatment yesterday. Six grueling hours in the chair. He said he got up at 7 and had coffee so he would be able to eat and be there at 9 (a leftover KC Strip steak), he's never been able to stomach breakfast. But he knows he has to eat before he goes to treatment because it takes too long. He won't let me bring him food while he's there, says it would nauseate the other patients.

He said that he and the Doctor negotiated his treatments yesterday. They had previously discussed the subject of not missing a single treatment. As in holding off on the every other Friday treatment schedule. The main reason for holding off on a treatment is when the white cell count is too low. Hubby doesn't want to miss a treatment because he wants this to be over and done in 6 months as planned, and possibly sooner if possible. If his white count is low, as it was two weeks ago, then they would give him the dreaded shot to up his count and not do the treatment for a few days, thus pushing the end date back. His count was really a little lower than they like when he went in for his second treatment, but Hubby convinced them to give him the treatment anyway. Then they gave him the Up-it shot last week in preparation for yesterdays chemo.

Hubby believes that the cancer is already gone. I do too! I haven't bought a case of Kleenex in about 6 weeks! Let me tell you... I was buying a case of Kleenex at Sam's every other week! There are 10 boxes, big boxes of Kleenex in a case! I should have had stock in Kimberly Clark all this time.... The trash man was probably wondering, who lives here? That mucus family on the commercials... you know the little green globby guy for the Musenex ads.

Anyway... Hubby believes the Doctor thinks it's gone also, but he just wants to make sure. After much discussion in our home over the fact that my mom's breast cancer treatment resulted in her later having Mylodisplacia (that is not the correct spelling), in other words... Leukemia. I have always said. I will NEVER take chemo or radiation. Cut it out and I'll take my chances with food, vitamins and acupuncture . But with his... the egg shaped TUMA in back of the eyes.... the great insurance.... the type of cancer.... rapid treatment... it all sounded good. We went the traditional Western method of treatment. But Hubby doesn't think he needs ALL the treatments. And he has a good point here.

He is trying to convince the Doctor to quit at 6 treatments... the Doctor wants to do 8, they are compromising... we'll see how far that gets. When he told the treatment nurse, she gave him a look like "you don't know who you are dealing with" and laughed at him.

Eight treatments is standard. Why is that? Extensive CTs and MRIs have shown he only has one Lymph gland and his tonsils and adenoids that have cancer, stage 2. Opposed to other people who may have all the lymph glands in their neck, plus their arm pits, plus their groin infected, stage 4. And they too get 8 treatments. Does that make sense? They are injecting his body with a poison so powerful it makes a 210 pound man as weak as a kitten, a man who could play a mandolin or guitar hours on end, not even have the energy to pick the instrument up. It makes a man who loves to eat, so ill at the sight of food that he has to force himself to eat just because he knows he would die without food (thank God for chocolate ice cream.) Here's a man who works with chemicals on a daily basis that say on the label "toxic- do not allow contact with skin" and shows a hand with dripping liquid eating through it. Yet he's allowing people pump chemicals into his body that are so toxic that his hair falls out and he looses the feeling in his fingers and toes. What is wrong with this picture?

So for all you cancer survivors out there... I'm truly happy that you are survivors. But haven't you ever wondered about this? Why do we not question things like this? Is it because the insurance companies have us over a barrel? We're in that boat... "take the treatment now while we have insurance. We'll take our chances later when the company moves to China and we're out of work..." We should all question our Doctors and make them question their tactics. Is the treatment of Cancer really the Cancer Busine$$? I have people come to me on a very regular basis asking me to support them in their walk or run or what ever they are doing to raise money for cancer treatment. It's hard for me to say no to them because they are my friends, but my money is already going to cancer treatment... so much that it's effecting our way of life. I am so happy that my cancer survivor friends are well enough to be participating in these events, I support you all with a huge pat on the back, because YOU had the will to survive the treatment.
But I can't and won't walk, or jog or run for something I believe had a hand in causing my mom to be ill and die from. Cancer treatment killed her. It's just the way I feel.

Sorry for the rant, but I if I remember correctly that's why I created this blog.... to voice my feelings about this whole ordeal. This is my therapy. I don't need a counselor... my readers (the 4 or 5 I know I have because they post comments....) are my counselors. Thank you!!! :P

It's confirmed.... the sun is up, the bats have gone to bed, the mosquitoes (mosies) are attacking like they haven't eaten in months and the Chupacabra is a lovely specimen of Pit Bull. HE... is already showing his intelligence. He doesn't bark at every little thing... I hate that! I will have to have the neighbors introduce us. Because I have a gun and I'm not afraid to use it, and they have a crappy fence that falls down every time the wind blows.... Gustov IS coming our direction.... Yeah I can be a B-I-.... big headed woman, but I've lived here longer and I shouldn't have to be afraid of an attack dog. Good fences make good neighbors.

Ya'll have a REAL good Labor Day weekend, don't drink too much.... that reminds me, I'm out of wine. I'll try to add a pic of the Chupacabra.