Hi, everyone! I took a little break from blogging last week because nothing too eventful happened honestly!

I finished my 3rd taxol (7th treatment overall) today – this means I’m 1/4 of the way through the taxol treatments (gotta celebrate every little victory)! After next week, I’ll be half way done with chemo ❤ So far this one is a piece of cake compared to the AC “red devil,” and I’m grateful for that.

I give attention, appreciation, and acceptance to everyone.

Deepak chopra

I have had some difficulty keeping my blood work normal. This isn’t uncommon, but I’m really competitive so I want everything in the normal range. My white blood cell counts came back low the past 2 weeks and my doctor lowered my chemo dose last week but decided to try that same dose again this week. With low white counts, I’m at a very high risk for infection, so I honestly haven’t left the house or interracted with anyone besides my husband and doctors in the past 2 weeks. Justin agreed to work from home for a few weeks until our spike in COVID cases improves to keep both of us and his immunocompromised patients healthy.

In order to boost my white count they gave me a series of 2 injections of Zarxio last week and I’ll also have 2 more tomorrow and Saturday. Zarxio is similar to the Neulasta/Udenyca injection I had after AC but is a “short release” versus “delayed release” action. We’ll see how it goes – if my counts don’t come up high enough, we may have to lower the chemo dosage again. These injections were a killer last week and gave me body aches, tailbone pain, and hot flashes – maybe I missed that with the Udenyca because I was so sick otherwise!

My red blood cell counts and hemoglobin/hematocrit are also low which puts me at risk for anemia. It’s not terrible, but I’d rather it not drop any lower. I’m keeping up with exercise and an iron-rich diet in hopes to keep it up as much as I can.

I’ve also seen my liver enzymes rising which my oncologist contributes to the chemo itself and not to any other medications or supplements I’m currently taking. My acupuncturist recommended a milk thistle supplement to help the liver clear those drugs out of my system, so I’ll give it a try. There is very little research to say it’s helpful, but a lot that says it doesn’t cause any harm, so why not? I’m also going to acupuncture weekly and this has been a lifesaver as she focuses heavily on my liver and kidneys as well as preventing any peripheral neuropathy.

Anyway, that’s all that’s new here. I’ve been working, watching a lot of Netflix, and took an excellent business training based on Human Design this week. If you haven’t heard of human design, I highly recommend you look into it! Check out my friend www.krystalewoods.com/humandesign (or @krystalewoods on instagram) to learn more!

I’ve been using guided meditations from Deepak Chopra the past several weeks and the quote above really caught my attention. I hope it can be a centering thought for you this week as it has been for me. Take note of all the beautiful people and things in your life and give them your attention, appreciation and acceptance. No one is perfect, but we all do our best.

Hope you all have a great weekend – stay safe and healthy! Sending you all lots of love.

xo