The holidays have arrived and so RaRa's favorite elf is back to cheer for her and her amazing resilience. Sherryl loved this elf when she saw it last year, so the season-loving character representing magic and joy has returned.
Although the elf is jumping with excitement, Sherryl is not. Following a couple of good weeks, she needed her walker to get to the Thanksgiving table at Jonathan and Rachael's home Thursday evening. When she got home that night, she went to bed and stayed there all weekend long. She stayed in bed all day Monday, too. As of today, she feels pain only from time to time, but she's "chemo tired," so much so that she doesn't even want to talk on the phone.
So, while it felt like progress was made, her tumor marker had dropped, and she was able to work and play and get around, the combination of fatigue and need for a walker feels like a huge setback. The number in the title, thirty-three, is the one Sherryl most frequently pulls from mid-air when she needs to use an arbitrary number in a sentence. And since the number thirty-three is a lot higher than the number two (as in "one step forward, two steps back"), it works perfectly here. Unfortunately.
Last week, Sherryl's oncologist increased the dosage of the current chemo-cocktail and prescribed a stronger medication for pain she was feeling in her hips. In surfacing a pattern for the side effects of this particular chemotherapy, which is administered once a week for 3 weeks and then there is one week of no chemotherapy, it is during the off week when the cumulative effects of the medication hit Sherryl hard. She sleeps all day every day and her mouth is dry. There is very little talking when she is awake, but she is aware of people and her surroundings.
Sherryl is scheduled to return to chemotherapy this next week, and another scan will be scheduled within the next few days to determine whether or not there is a fracture that is causing the pain in her hips.
Sherryl did enjoy Thanksgiving and we were very grateful that our entire family was together for Sherryl's favorite holiday. We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too.
~xoxo~
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