Getting my last (maybe) dose of chemo

Right now I'm sitting in my chemo chair, snuggled up in a beautiful quilt made and sent to me by one of my favorite high school teachers (it continues to astound me at the people from my past who continue to contact me and send me gifts and well-wishes during this time), forcing myself to eat some yogurt and drink lots of water, while watching the last bag of chemo drip into my port.

The days go by like roller coasters.  I wake up in the morning feeling absolutely horrible.  I take some pain meds and drink a ton of water, by an hour later or so, I start to really feel fantastic.  An hour or so later I begin to feel icky, maybe even somewhat quesy (This is probably b/c I'm not eating when I take the pain meds.  I have to wait for the meds to kick in before I feel ok enough to eat and make it so food only burns at a 4 or 5, not a 6 or 7).  Then I start to feel local pain in some of the mouth sores on my tongue.  I take some lidocaine on a q-tip, suck on that for a bit, and feel better for another 15 minutes or so.  I start to feel bad again.  I begin to notice the skin falling of my neck and places on it start to bleed.  I start coughing.  The mucus in my throat becomes overwhelming.  I use my suction machine and/or drink lots of water and it starts to get better.  3 hours are up, so I take more pain meds.  Within the next hour, I start to feel really fantastic and the cycle starts again.  Right now I'm at the skin falling off / neck bleeding part.  Not fun.... but I'm looking forward to the pain meds in 1/2 hour.

I did drive myself to treatment today, but I timed it so that I was driving during that "feeling fantastic" part.  I don't think my timing will work out as well for the rest of the appointments.  I'm hoping I do ok and if not, Jake will just have to figure out a way to get both cars home. :\

Lastly, to address the "(maybe)" from the title.....  I was told at my last visit with my MO that this might not be the last of the chemo treatments.  We may still opt for mop-up checmo.  If we do this, it won't start for a month or two after this round of treatment is done and it would be 5 days straight, once a month, for three months.  Right now it is up in the air.  We will be discussing whether or not I should do it at my March 8th appointment.  I'm ever-so-slightly leaning against it, but I will wait to hear what the MO has to say and what studies support this type of treatment.  I've seen other oral cancer patients get this type of chemo instead of my type, but never both.  We'll just have to wait and see.