The Next Phase

A week ago, on October 5, I completed my 17th chemotherapy dose and my doctor decided that was enough. I'm glad he decided that because I had just about reached the end of my stamina. Now, a week later, I'm feeling pretty good...all things considered.

With chemo finished, it's time for the next phase of treatment. I met this past Wednesday with a radiation therapy doctor at Missouri Cancer Associates. He felt that because my cancer is an aggressive strain that we should treat it aggressively so I'll have to have radiation therapy. My first treatment will be October 24, then October 31 and finally November 7. It's only three treatments and I was told that there would be little or no side effects. Certainly not the nausea and tiredness that I experienced with chemo. I figure I lived through four months of chemo and now can do just about anything. The down side is now I will have another doctor to add into the mix. Three of my doctors will follow me every three months for the next couple of years. Guess I'll be spending a lot of time at the doctor's office for a while.

I had four blood transfusions throughout chemo. Without them, I can't imagine how I would feel! My blood counts are still kind of low which means I am susceptible to infection so I've been staying home as much as I can. And I'm dealing with peripheral neuropathy which means that I have numbness in my fingers and my feet. The doctor tells me that the neuropathy will go away with time. Sure hope he's right!

To make this crafty, I finished the last installment of pattern testing that I had been doing for The Quilt Pattern Magazine. I still need to layer and quilt the project for the final installment and hope to get that done this coming week. And I finally feel like knitting again. I count stitches when I knit and during chemo I couldn't concentrate well enough to count. (I called the problem "chemo brain.") But that has changed. I finished a pair of socks that I started back in the early spring and have started another pair. I don't know what it is about socks, but I really enjoy knitting them. I'm feeling confident enough with sock knitting that I'm going to try some of the patterned directions. As always happens, I can hardly wait to finish this pair so I can start on a new pattern. I guess that's what all creative people go through.

Sorry no photos this time. I'll try to take some photos and post them in the next few days. Now that the directions for a couple of the projects I tested for the quilt magazine have been published, I can show photos of what I did. I think you'll like them.

So now you're  up to date. I'm feeling very positive about the future and am excited to get on to the next needlework project. And of course I'll tell you all about them.

Thanks for reading. Until next time...
Amy