Chemo Round 3 update

Hi everyone,

On Tuesday, December 16th, Shari completed her 3rd round of chemotherapy treatment. Tuesday was a very long day for Shari. She left the house at 7am and didn't get home until close to 6:30pm. Despite being tired and drained, Shari did experience her usual Day 1 side effect of feeling "high" from the meds. Yesterday, Shari felt decent. There was some more significant bone and joint pain than she usually feels this early in her chemo cycle, but it wasn't too unbearable. Shari did also experience some nausea yesterday. Anticipating how she would feel in the next couple of days, and despite her side effects, Shari actually mustered the strength to complete all of her gift wrapping for the upcoming holidays. She is so inspirational!

Shari's friend Max (or Crazy Aunt Max) returned from Boston yesterday and will stay with Shari through Sunday. Max is such a wonderful support for Shari, Daria, and Tom.... making sure that they all have what they need to make it through these tough days of Shari's chemo cycle.

Please keep Shari in your prayers over the next several days. These are the days that are the toughest for her in her chemo cycle and she will experience the worst and most significant side effects over the next few days.

During her treatment on Tuesday, Shari and the oncology team revisited Shari's targeted therapy regimen. You will recall that Shari was having significant reaction to the targeted therapy drugs (severe body rashes). She had been taking the drug 2 times per day, but when the reactions started, they discontinued the drug altogether until her body healed. Shari then started taking the targeted therapy once per day. She has not had any of the severe rashing during this time, although she does still have itching and peeling of her hands and feet. Because she has reacted fairly well to the once per day plan, they decided on Tuesday that Shari would start taking the targeted therapy drugs 2 times per day, every other day. On the days in between, Shari will just take it once per day. Please pray for Shari that this gradual ramp up will work for her body and not cause her any severe reactions as it had before!

Shari's next chemotherapy is now scheduled for January 5th, but may be pushed back to January 12th. We will update the exact date in a post soon.

Best,
Shannon