You Got Questions? I got Answers!

Maybe that will be the title of my column, but I'd really want to get across a New Jersey accent some how in there.

Susan Eastman, Helping Hands coordinator extraordinaire, asked me to clarify how often exactly Mom will be receiving chemotherapy. She will only receive it one day a week for several hours. For example, if her treatments are on Mondays, she will receive an infusion of one drug, then the following Monday she will receive an infusion of two drugs, then the following Monday (week 3) she will have off from any chemo in an effort to let the drugs take their course and for her to rest. These three weeks complete a cycle, and she will do six cycles total.

So like...three times six is like...mental math, mental math....18 weeks. Mid May, we'll have a "Get Lost Chemo" party, providing she is able to stay on track. Things that could get her off track would be if she absolutely does not tolerate treatment at all and therefore loses too much weight, inability to maintain safe blood cell counts, etc. But that won't happen!

I plan on sticking around for the first treatment or two, and Didi will be here as well, but we'll certainly need folks to help bring Mom to her treatments and/or stay with her for a bit after each treatment. This all depends on how she tolerates it, but these are just seeds to plant in our Helping Hands' crew's brains.