6 more rounds of chemo!

This is me back in late August after my diagnosis getting my first blood transfusion. Color instantly returned to my face! I was pretty pale before.

Hey everyone!

Sorry about the dreadful, previous post. Part of me regrets putting it up and sharing the downsides of having a blood cancer, but part of me doesn’t at the same time, because I know that it was as real as it gets. My sincerest apologies though if I sounded like a Mr. Grinch

I’ve currently transitioned to the UCSF Medical Center. For the past few weeks, I’ve been going at the outpatient clinics at the hospital getting check-ups about once to twice a week. Since my family is located in the Bay Area, I didn’t want to further burden my parents by continuing treatment at UCLA. However, the UCLA Medical Center took care of me very well and I owe it to the physicians, case managers, nurses, and volunteers there for helping me get through induction. I can’t give them enough thanks and gratitude.

I have six more rounds of chemotherapy left to go and entering the phase of consolidation. It will take up the course of my time for six to seven months. Luckily, not all of it will have to be at the hospital (i.e. living there overnight or weeks at a time). Here’s a brief outlook of my chemotherapy schedule:

Round 1: Induction completed at UCLA! Woot!

Round 2: Outpatient (Yay!) — takes place from late October 26 to November 25ish
Go visit the clinic about 1-2x/week for 4 weeks, enjoy home time

Round 3: Inpatient (Boo!) — takes place after Thanksgiving in November to early December 2-3ish?
4 to 5 days of hospitalization (not bad?)

Interim: Rest for 2-3 weeks to let body recover! No chemo! Enjoy home time for the rest of December, yay! Christmas!!

Round 4: Outpatient (Yay!) — takes place from beginning January to beginning of February
Go visit the clinic about 1-2x/week for 4 weeks, enjoy home time Hopefully don’t have to do chemotherapy on birthday

Round 5: Inpatient (Super Boo!) — takes place from beginning of February to mid March
3-4 weeks of hospitalization, similar to induction round. This one is the hardest hurdle to go through for consolidation ….

Interim: Rest for 2-3 weeks to let body recover! No chemo! Enjoy home time until beginning of April!

Round 6: Inpatient (Boo!) — takes place from beginning of April to mid-Aprilish
4 to 5 days of hospitalization (not bad?)

Interim: Rest for 2-3 weeks to let body recover! No chemo! Enjoy home time until mid-May!

Round 7: Inpatient (Boo!) — takes place from mid-May to late-May!
4 to 5 days of hospitalization (not bad?)

Rest and recover again for 2-3 weeks, but then I’m FINALLY DONE!

As most of you may already know, we finally finished our website headquarters: www.helpingjanet.com

I’ll try to post more often! Just kind of trying to enjoy the weekend before I restart chemotherapy.

Until then, all my best,

Janet