Those of you who have known Leslie for a while may know that she announces "Opening Ceremonies" for her birthmonth on March 1st.  Her actual birthday isn't until March 26th but she loves cards and would love to get one from YOU!  Our mailing address is:

Leslie Gilbert

402 E Worthington Rd

Imperial, CA   92251

Please write it down.  In a few days Leslie will be feeling better and will make it to the computer, when she sees this post she will probably make me take it down  :)

Mike

Leslie had a good night, mostly because we kept her drugged out of her gourd.  Well, not really, but we did set an alarm and give her medication every 3 hours all night long.  We're going to back off to every 4 hours and see how that works then taper off the medicine as she feels better.  The effects of this round of chemo are only supposed to last a few days.

She's a little tired today and sore from too much time in bed and on the couch.   Plan to head home this morning.

11:30 Home, Sweet Home.  It was great at Monica's - she has us set up for every comfort imaginable.  Monica is so sweet, she even bought us a bed identical to our bed at home so we can sleep well.  Still, it's good to be home.

Leslie is doing fair, she's tired of being tired (a side effect of the nausea meds).  But for now, better to be tired than nauseated.

1AM - Well, it finally hit HARD.  Leslie has had nausea and abdominal pain for a few hours now.  Those of you on the East Coast will be waking up soon (and everyone else shortly after), please pray that she feels better real soon!

1:30AM - Called the on-call oncologist and she had Leslie take her AM nausea meds.   Leslie slept until 5:30 but the nausea is coming back

1:00PM - We're back from the Drs office.  Another IV (we'll be looking into a MediPort next week) with fluids, electrolytes, antinausea meds, and a diuretic to help get rid of retained fluids. Dr McClay's staff was wonderful again, they treat Leslie like the queen she truely is.  Leslie is feeling better but still not all that great.  Seems that we overlooked the early symptoms of nausea last night until it was too late- we won't make that mistake again :)  Going to keep her well medicated, she'll probably sleep until morning.  If everything goes well we'll head back home in the morning.

Leslie is done with day 2, woohoo!  Praise God for all His blessings.  Everything is going well except for a little nausea this morning (Grandfather Gilbert's pears with ginger and cinnamon helped that, thanks Evelyn).  Yesterday's IV didn't hold up through the night so it had to be re-started, but without too much trauma.

Another relaxing evening at Monica's tonight, an injection at 9:00 tomorrow morning and we'll be on our way home!

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Leslie is done with chemo for the day and everything is good so far.  The staff at Dr McClay's office is great!   Had some trouble starting the IV - the first 2 veins blew but the third try worked out.  Tressa (the chemo RN) was wonderful and very gentle, Leslie tolerated the 3 tries very well thanks to your prayers.  We got in at 10:00 this morning and were out by 2:00.  No side effects from the chemo yet, we'll see what happens.  The rest of the afternoon and evening we'll spend relaxing, Monica will be cooking us a feast for dinner.

Looks like everything is going well with the insurance, thanks to Larry Bennett and the administration of Pioneers Hospital.  All the of medications are very expensive and the staff at Dr. McClay's office were surprised how much the insurance was covering.

PS Terrie O. thanks for the giant heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies, they are the best!

Life is hard.  God is good. Let's dance!