Sort of Halfway
Eric recently finished his third out of six chemo treatments. Halfway. Well, sort of.
Seeing Eric battle cancer, I’m realizing part of what makes cancer so inhumane is that in order to get better, the treatment has to make you sicker. And not just a little sicker. You can feel and look like you’re dying, and it’s all in service to ensuring that you live. As part of Eric’s treatment, the goal is to get him to neutropenia, an abnormally low count of white blood cells rendering the immune system worthless. It’s extremely dangerous but extremely effective because it means Eric is being delivered the maximum amount of chemo his body can handle.
Last weekend we had a scare when Eric spiked a fever. At 6am on Sunday morning Eric woke me up and told me he wasn’t feeling well and his temperature was 99.7. We called the on-call oncologist and I was praying they’d tell us to just relax and wait it out. No such luck. The doctor said to bring Eric into the ER immediately because there was a risk he was neutropenic and had an infection.
After 5 hours in the ER, a chest X-ray, blood work up, and some IV fluids, Eric’s temperature was back down and he was feeling better. It turns out he was not neutropenic, so that was a huge relief. On the other hand, it’s just a matter of time until it happens. He is more likely to get neutropenic each cycle since they increase his dose of chemo by 20%. Now we know the drill when it does.
The reality is that even though Eric is halfway through his treatments, the second half won’t compare to the first half. Not only does chemo build up in your body over time so all the side effects worsen (e.g. Eric is experiencing some more neuropathy now) but he also gets hit with ever increasing doses. It’s going to be much tougher from here on out.
My aunt, who also happens to be my mom’s twin sister, was here for a week to help us. Having her help on top of my mom’s help made things a million times easier, especially when we needed to get Eric to the ER. My aunt is coming back for a month starting in late August.
I’m so grateful I have not one, but two people who will drop everything in their life to move across the country and help me with mine. We are getting through this because people are stepping up in a big way. Family, friends, Google and Winnie co-workers, Winnie investors, heck even some of my followers on Twitter, have all stepped up. We will never forget the help, big and small. I have no doubt that if we can get through these next few months, there is nothing we can’t get through together.
