Seven Down

For the first time in about two and a half weeks this little chipmunk has been able to feel her cheekbones! Today is going to be a very good day indeed :) What is sometimes referred to as "moonface" by those of us taking dexamethasone appears to be subsiding. I have been able to reduced my intake from 16mg/day when I started (Jan. 26th) to 6mg a day. Tomorrow I will drop down to 4mg/day :) This is pretty exciting news as the steroid has been wreaking havoc on my sleep schedule for the past month. For a girl who regularly gets 8 hours a sleep a night, dropping down to 4-6 hours and waking up at 5am has been disheartening to say the least. Things seems to be looking up though, as last night I was able to capture 6.5h and I'm taking that as a big old victory.

ALSO!!! Today is officially the half way point of my first round of chemotherapy! So far, the only issues that I am dealing with are some tingly feelings in my hands and feet, some general discomfort in the stomach area, a little nausea, a tiny cough and one tiny mouth sore. I'll admit that the mouth sore is totally my fault for not rinsing with baking soda twice a day.  I'd say I'm doing pretty well considering the last time I was going through chemo, I had already been hospitalized at this point! Knock on wood.

To jazz this entry up, I have a few pictures that I would like to share with everyone.
I have been documenting a few of the things I've been doing with my friends and family over the past month or so. Some of them were low key, some of them, like the symphony, a little more extravagant :)

Jan 29, 30 &31st
The weekend after I was diagnosed, Adam and I headed up to St. Catharines, ON to visit with Asia and Peter. Little did I know that the group had planned for our friend Stephanie to surprise me. I haven't seen Steph since December 2008. Far too much food was consumed, which I will blame on the steroids ;)
On Sunday, I was also fortunate enough to be able to catch up with one of my favourite people, Mr. Kyle Foster :) Kyle made the trek to Hamilton to meet us for lunch... turns out that everything in Hamilton with vegan options is closed for lunch on Sunday, so we had to resort to KFC... which serves a vegan friendly chicken burger.

Pure sugar water. Pretty darn gross.

Feb. 12th, 13th, & 14th
This weekend Asia, Stephanie, and I headed to Detroit to hang out with Adam.  Peter, Jordan and Jess joined us on the Saturday.

Asia and Steph at Red Robin. I gain 5 pounds every time I eat here.

Adam calls it Chuck E. Cheese for adults and he isn't kidding!

The ladies first time at Target. 

On Valentine's Day, we all went to a fancy vegetarian restaurant for breakfast.

Peter (et al.) slightly annoyed that he had yet to get a coffee after being in the restaurant for 15 minutes.

Feb. 19th, 20th, &21st
This was the weekend of the symphony. Upon arriving in St. Catharines, we made our way out for dinner with Asia's family to celebrate her sister Kasia's birthday. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that it was a pretty amazing evening. Then next day we headed up to Toronto and had dinner at Fresh with a few friends before heading to the symphony. As a post symphony celebration, we headed across the street from the hotel to Jack Astor's to enjoy the less serious/refined side of life.

Jordan. Not entirely sure what he is doing?

Asia showing me how to kick the crap out of cancer.

Steph and I

Peter and Tricia :) They really weren't bored. I swear.

Kasia, Asia and I at the Symphony

Jack Astor's 

Me sleeping in the Royal York Hotel... feeling like a princess.