Dad's update - April 18th 2008

Hi everyone –
Although Rebecca seemed to almost “breeze” through her first 3 chemo treatments (transient side effects only), I think some of the cumulative effects have now caught up with her. The last few days have been a bit more difficult.
Last weekend, Rebecca really began having some difficulties with insomnia. Though she is very tired at night, and readily falls asleep at bedtime, she cannot remain asleep very long. She regularly wakes up between 1 and 2 am, and simply cannot fall back asleep. She has taken to getting up every night and trying to find things to occupy herself for 4 or 5 hours until it’s actually time to get up. She writes thank-you notes, answers emails, tries to read, takes warm baths, drinks “sleepy tea”, and otherwise worries herself with all of things that no one should be doing in the wee hours of the night.
She has also developed a cough that the doctors are concerned might be an infection of some kind. This is bad for someone on chemo, with a very diminished immune system, who is not getting enough sleep. So they have given her a 5-day antibiotic to try to knock this out before her next scheduled chemo treatment next Tuesday. She has also been advised to stay away from people in general to not pick up any colds or flu. We certainly do not want to have to delay the chemo schedule at this point. Rebecca is eager to get this behind us.
But as if insomnia and a cough weren’t enough, Rebecca has also been having headaches the last few nights, and the “bone pain” associated with the Neulasta shot (to rebuild white blood counts for your immunity system) seems to have hit her a little later this cycle. It started yesterday (about 3 days late), and instead of it being in her hips or thighs, it’s now in her ankles. Go figure. It just seems to move around a little each cycle. I don’t know what all this means, and I feel a little helpless as to how to help her. I can give her Advil and Tylenol, but I can’t make her sleep.
She is very tired and anxious about not sleeping. She can’t really seem to take naps either. We have tried a couple of different sleep prescriptions (Ambien) and OTC Benedryl, but so far it’s still like “Groundhog Day” for her – only she wakes up every day at 1:15am. We keep wondering what it is that Rebecca is supposed to learn, so that, like Bill Murray, we can move on!
I just wanted to give all of you a brief update. I know she could use some encouragement – so I want to tell you all how much we appreciate your calls, messages, little notes, kind thoughts, well wishes, and especially your prayers.
Love,
Mark