First let me start by apologizing for not posting an update until now. Things have been a little crazy around here, and I have been trying to keep up with it all. Both of my younger boys play football for their schools, and they have had football games and everything involved with that. All you parents of football players know what I mean. For those who don’t know my eldest is getting married in just a little over a week, so we are in full wedding mode at this point. To say we are busy is definitely an understatement. I do know everyone is curious about how I am doing, and I wanted to take a moment to update you all.
My first round of chemo (3 treatments) is done, and I took it on like a champ! I know I am truly blessed that the treatments have not been all that bad. Right after each treatment I was tired and so I rested as much as I felt that I needed. If you have been following along, you may know that after my first treatment my white blood cell count took a major dip, and I had have 5 shots (one a day for five days) to bring those levels back up. Needless to say, my insurance company was not happy about those shots and did not want to cover them. As a result they asked my nurse practitioner to do something in the future regarding the shots that requires I would receive one shot the very next day after chemo.
Now we get to my second chemo treatment and the shot did not arrive on time. I praise God because my white blood cell count did take another dip but it was still within range that I would be ok. In the mean time, the shot I was suppose to receive right after this treatment finally arrived but just not in time for me to take. Fast forward to the third treatment, I again took it like a champ, and the day after I followed the instructions given to me and took the shot. This shot helps protect chemo patients from infections. I share this because what happened next was crazy in my opinion.
My treatment was on a Friday. The following Tuesday I started to have some congestion from what I thought was allergies. By Thursday, I was surprised to find out that I actually had COVID. What’s so funny about this is that everyone I know that had COVID up to this point ran really high fevers including my own family members. So we were very concerned about me running a fever. The doctors had warned me that if I run a fever above 100.4 I would have to immediately call them and go straight to the hospital. Again, I praise God because I never ran a fever the entire time I tested positive for COVID. The only way I found out that I even had COVID was that I lost my sense of taste and smell. Other than that, I felt perfectly normal. I know God’s hand is on me because I fully believed that He orchestrated everything down to the shot that I received right after this treatment. I believe that because of that shot I was not as sick like some have been when they had that infection. I am still totally amazed and grateful to God for all of it.
So now I will be taking a break from chemo, and I will be having radiation done very soon. There will be a total of 25 treatments that I will receive five days a week for 5 weeks. I do not know when we will begin that process yet, but it will be very soon. I have already had my pre-radiation appointment where they took measurements with a CT scan in order to know where the radiation will be targeted. The reason I am having radiation is because one of my lymph nodes was positive for cancer. At this point, I am hoping that I will begin radiation after my son’s wedding. In the meantime, I am feeling more like myself and will enjoy every moment of it!
Even though things are going well for me, please continue to pray for me and my family. Each treatment has had its own toll on myself and my family. Everyone’s prayers have helped, and I am very grateful for them and for you all.
Candy McKee 