So far, so good

Today is the start of day 2 after my first chemo.  Yesterday I felt pretty good, just soreness from the port & a small headache that motrin took care of.  I was a little tired, but because I'd gone to bed at about 830 the night before, with an ambien, I felt pretty rested when I got up!  I think the steroids they gave me really helped me feel peppy and I enjoyed a morning with good friends at a playdate & lunch at chick-fila.  I took a short nap (maybe 40min) in the afternoon and felt well enough to take Audacity to training outside in the cold.

I was pretty worn out after training so went straight to bed, but after falling asleep for less than an hour, I woke and couldn't fall back asleep.  so I ended up taking an ambien around 1:30am.  This morning I'm a little tired and feeling just the slightest bit of nausea.  Not enough to feel like I need to take anything though.  I need to call the nurse to ask her about taking ambien nightly and also about whether or not I can keep my dentist appt this afternoon.

Here are a few pictures from Wed- my port is under that big white bandage.  The tube in my vein runs up to where that little red dot is, then it was turned and run down a vein that goes in the middle of my chest.

I thought the port would have some sort of tubing sticking out or something, but it was actually put in a pocket they created under my skin.  Here's basically what it looks like on the inside:  

weird, right?  

After chemo the nurse put on my neulasta "patch"- I put that in quotes because it felt more like a tag that they put on clothes to keep them from being stolen LOL  It was big and awkward & I was happy to take it off once it dispensed the medicine at around 4pm yesterday.  Here's what that thing looks like:

I was told it'd go off around 4pm yesterday but I forgot until I was sitting in Everett's doctor's office with him (for a regular checkup) and she asked if that was me beeping.  It was the patch saying it was about to start LOL  

The neulasta may cause bone ache because it's job is to increase white blood cell production and that happens in the bone marrow, which can cause them to ache.  So far, so good though.  

So far I've still been able to get in my morning coffee so I think I can stay strong as long as I can have my coffee LOL  

The kids are being really great and making sure I'm feeling okay.  I'm blessed to have wonderful friends who helped me with the twins yesterday.  It's the little things, like my friend Jill offering to take them off my hands for the morning, although I was feeling well enough to go too.  And Corinne staying with me in the bathroom after they went potty so she could hold them up to help them wash their hands.  Those are little things that people don't realize I'll need help with (I can't do any heavy lifting for the next 10 days or so because of the port surgery).  I'm so glad to have such wonderful people to help and support me throughout this journey.  Ya'll will never know how much it means to us!   We appreciate every note, prayer, offer of help & meal that we've received.