I just came home from my 7 of 8 cycles of chemotherapy, and I am tired! My day started at 9:30am for blood work, then I had to see my oncologist and lastly my actual infusion. The longest party of this cycle was the Taxol infusion. It took about 4-5 hours! Thanks to the benadryl I was able to sleep for about 2 hours and for the last 3 hours I spent the time talking with my sister Anna and my mom.

I did not write about my last cycle, cycle 6, so I will go into it right now. The day of the cycle I slept for about half of the infusion, my mother and twin sister Natalie joined me this time. The infusion went by quickly, on the way home I was not tired as much as this time, although I did feel nauseous. On Wednesday I felt OK and was able to go to the library to do some studying with Natalie. Thursday my Neulesta shot came in, it is usually delivered to my house between the hours of 1-4pm so I was not able to go to the library. Friday was the most toughest day, I had extreme muscles aches. To a point where I did not get out of bed and slept the entire day. The Advil did not help much with this symptom. Over the weekend I started feeling better, but still had some bone pain. By Monday I was almost back to normal and was able to go about my usual tasks. Overall, I would say this cycle went well. I did not experience any major side effects other than the muscle aches. One day down is not bad at all! Just some extra sleep 🙂

Nikita arrived on Friday to spend some time with me. So having any major side effects would not be advantageous for spending a few days with my boyfriend. On Saturday we drove to Toronto to spend the week since there were some renovations going on in my home. The first 2 nights we spent with Natalie and spent the day at my older sister Anna’s house with her 2 daughters and husband. It was a very nice and relaxing time, I am very happy we got to spend this time together. All that were missing was my parents and my grandmother.
Monday to Thursday night we stayed at my grandmother’s house, since she went away to Ukraine for the summer. During the day time, Nikita was working and I wanted to do some studying so we went to Robarts Library at the University of Toronto.

We did a lot of walking around the city, and even went to the Royal Ontario Museum to see the Mesopotamia exhibit. The exhibit was very interesting and fun. I must admit, the amount of walking that we did took a toll on my feet. Even though I was wearing running shoes, by the end of the day my feet would swell and ache. This must be one of the side effects of chemo because my feet would rarely react this way.

The Taxol is also showing some effects with the neuropathy. My feet feel more swollen than usual, and just recently I started feeling the tingling sensation. I have one more session left, so hopefully my feet will not get too numb.

Friday night to Sunday we stayed with Anna and her family, until we finally made it back to Buffalo on Sunday in the afternoon. Fortunately Nik’s flight was delayed by an hour and I got to spend more time with him. 🙂

This whole week with Nikita and my sisters was really amazing. I am very thankful for them and truly feel blessed by how much love and support I get from them all!!