Happy Birthday Monica!!

So I figured I'd post again since Monica is probably flying into Logan right about now and definitely not going to post again before Monday (shout-out to Sharyn and Jeff who are getting hitched this weekend!!).

Mom's doing great. This week was her second cycle of the cocktail of four different chemotherapies. Since it's the second cycle, we now have a slight idea of what to expect: neutropenia (weak immune system, but you know that by now), thrush, cold sores, and fatigue. Dr. Donadio, our superwoman/oncologist reduced each dosage by 20% to try to control these symptoms. Mom is already starting to experience a sore throat but it didn't seem to stop her from gobbling down two eggs, a piece of toast, applesauce, and a glass of OJ for breakfast this morning! Which is good because right now is crucial calorie packing time. When the cold sores and the thrush are at their worst, getting Mom to eat is nearly impossible so her weight becomes another concern.

Another long term side effect that's emerging is loss of hearing. Mom had a really interesting appointment with an audiologist at St. Francis before chemo on Monday. The audiologist tested Mom's "outer" (her actual hearing organs) and "inner" (neurological processes that interpret signals from said hearing organs) ear functioning. Her outer ears are functioning normally. However, higher frequencies are beginning to sound distorted to her, meaning the s, t, and f sounds (there are probably more but those are the only ones I managed to write down). So, if you're ever talking to my mother, a few things to keep in mind: make sure she can see your face--particularly your lips--when you talk to her; speak slowly and clearly; if she asks you to repeat what you said, say it in a different way; and make sure there's no background noise when you talk to her (she has a hard time sorting out multiple different inputs in her brain, so just mute the music, TV, etc). This is all likely to be because of cisplatin, one of the chemotherapies Mom's getting. It's known to mess with the chemical balance that allows signals to pass from neuron to neuron, especially between the neurons that receive inputs from her outer ears. I hope that's not too much detail... quite frankly, I thought it was one of the most interesting appointments I'd ever been to with my mom!

Otherwise, today is a very special day because it is my dear sister's 28th birthday! As I said, she's spending the morning on a flight home and I'm guessing a good part of the rest of the day sleeping, but if I know Monica she'll probably wake up just long enough to eat birthday cake and ice cream.