Officially More Than Halfway There!

Well once again I'm finally getting to writing this post only a few days before I head back to Houston. My last round of treatment was on July 18th. I had my #1 caregiver, Ty, by my side <3 We've been fortunate that we've had so many people offer to take to me to Houston the last few months that it has given Tyler a break from his endless caregiving :) It was pretty surreal for him because he hadn't been to Houston since our first 11-day trip to Houston that included 8 days in the hospital. It feels like so much has happened since then. Time continues to be such a weird concept for us. Each day feels so hard and long but the weeks between rounds fly by and it feels like I'm constantly heading back to Houston. Plus my body has changed so much in that time and Ty has had a front row seat to see that evolution.

We drove on Wednesday evening, checked into our home away from home, and had some dinner before preparing for a long day on Thursday. Unfortunately, Thursday didn't start the way we wanted -- when I went to get my bloodwork they were unable to get a blood return from my port. After trying all of the usual tricks, they said I needed to go to the Vascular department to have them check it out. It turned out there was a blood clot in my port that they had to clear out with a specific kind of medicine. Supposedly this isn't totally uncommon, but it rattled me. Partially because anything going on with my port is scary but also because it threw off my routine for the day. I've now developed such a routine with each of these trips and didn't realize until my routine was thrown off, how important it is for my anxiety. Because I had to get my port de-clotted, I wasn't able to go back to the hotel for my usual big breakfast (often a breakfast burrito :)) before my doctor's appointment. You realize on a long, intense day like these treatment days are, even the small things matter :) Any way we got the port declotted and ate a quick breakfast in the cafeteria at MD Anderson before heading to my doctor's appointment. Dr. Nair (my usual doctor) was doing rounds at the hospital, so I saw another doctor. It was a pretty straightforward appointment -- my bloodwork looked good, we talked through some of my most recent side effects and how we could tackle them, and then said our goodbyes. As Tyler put it, "it's a good sign when your appointment is short -- shows things are going well!" We headed to my infusion and were pleasantly surprised when we were checked in quickly. We got set up in my room, met our nurse, and quickly got started. Our nurse was one of those nurses that was always thinking a few steps ahead -- so though it was still a long 8-hour infusion, it was so much quicker and smoother than the previous round because 1) our nurse was so efficient and speedy and 2) my blood pressure stayed at a good level so they didn't have to slow down the rate of the infusion like they had last time. It felt good to be walking out of the infusion center when the sun was still up!

These last few weeks have been okay. I have felt really tired, I continue to face various side effects, and generally feel that things just feel harder than they should be. I'm trying to have grace with myself, but it's difficult when it's been such a long journey.

Last weekend we rented a lake house on Lake Austin to celebrate Ty's birthday with his parents who were visiting and some good friends. It was our first "vacation" since this all started and it was so nice to get out of the city and relax in the sunshine. Lake life is good for the soul :)

My parents come into town on Monday and the entire Lewis family will head to Houston on Wednesday morning. I have another scan on Wednesday that will determine what my final four rounds of treatment look like -- If I'm still responding well, it will just be immunotherapy and if not, i'll continue to have these longer infusions with chemo involved. So until then, please send us positive thoughts for this next scan and round of treatment. As I feel like I say most days -- I'm hanging in there! Thank you all for your continued support <3