Long Day

The good news first:  The doctor today said that Eric has done "phenomenally well".  She also reminded us that starting today his white blood cell count should start to increase and in a few days he would have his current phase behind him.

The bad news is that he is feeling pretty crummy.  He has finally started to develop the mouth sores that plague most chemo patients.  We had hoped to be among the lucky few who never develop them, but at least Eric's didn't start up until just a few days before they start to diminish because of the rising white blood cell count.  Some people have mouth sores for a couple of weeks.  Ouch!

Eric's mouth was bothering him so much he didn't even care that his hair finally started falling out today and that this evening he threw up everything he had eaten for the past few hours.  Normally either of those two events would have been troubling to him.

The odd thing was that after throwing up, Eric started feeling better and more at peace with the whole process.  We know it is temporary.  We know that Eric has had fewer side effects than the majority of cancer patients  And we know that the bad part is almost over.  I think Eric was tired of feeling crummy all day, and after he threw up he just kind of said to himself, "Enough with the feeling crummy.  I am just going to mellow out, get some sleep, and I will feel better in the morning."