Post #54: Not to be believed, but true!

Hello Anita Fans!

Well, she's amazing! Today's quote from just a few minutes ago:

"Right now, I can't tell you how good I feel!"

Now, how she got there! Yesterday she went in for her second Rituxan treatment. It was administered over the course of three hours. A long haul, but they included some Benadryl in the administration and she says she conked right out and slept through a lot of it. That made the time speed by!

She and John got home by 6:30 p.m. or so and by 7:30 she started feeling sleepy again - but no nausea, from either the Wednesday chemo treatment or from the Rituxan. (This time she was fully prepared and had taken strong anti-nausea medication the night before and the morning of the Rituxan treatment.) She woke up around 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning, got up (without waking John), went to the computer and wrote my sister Marcia and I some emails and then went back to sleep about 3:30 a.m. Then she was up again at 6:30 a.m. this morning!
Had to let the dog out! And she's been cranking ever since! Her email to me stated that "I'm feeling much better than expected and hope to see the weekend without any sudden untoward developments. I know I'm better when my brain starts dreaming up all this stuff I want to get done." And boy is she!

The gasping for breath problem she has been experiencing "disappeared" yesterday afternoon. She still gets short of breath but now only after more extensive exertion, relatively speaking. As of 3:00 p.m. this afternoon, she is still not experiencing any nausea, is free from pain, and is feeling fine. She and John went to Home Depot today to get some fencing to keep Tristan in the back part of the yard and she walked the full length of the store (and you all know how big those stores are!) with no problems whatsoever and without having to stop and sit down. Today she also washed, fluffed up and dried the dog (it's a real mud lover), straigtened up her office and bedroom, weeded a bit and clipped some overhanging greenery in the yard! And she had pizza and beer for lunch!

She may still feel quite ill again in the next few days as the effects of the latest chemo and Rituxan treatments fully kick in, but this is the longest period of time that she has felt good after treatments to date. It all seems part of a progressively improving pattern in her overall health. How wonderful! It makes me so joyful to hear her so positive, so full of life! As she says, she is going to beat this thing!

Melissa