Labor Day Weekend

Because of the long weekend, we decided to make chemo#8 a family vacation. We left Holland on Thursday after wook. We stopped by Chicago to pick up Natalie who was one of the 8 girls adopted at the same time with Anna. Anna was extremely excited to have Natalie with us for this trip. I could not image how she would feel or behave if Natalie were not with us.

Me and Bert after Chemo#8. Chemo went well without any complications

Besides hair loss, I still don't have the common major side effect of chemo such as nausea or vomiting. However, I am getting some of the minor side effect such as tingling of fingers and toes, leg pains and fatigue.  Of course, I have to get some special. A very small percentage of people get this rare form rash as a result of allergy of the chemo. The chemo drug I am getting is called Taxol. Taxol itself was first discovered as extrant from yew tree bark. In order to deliver this drug through IV, the drug is dissolved in Cremophor EL. One of the rare form of allergic reaction to Cremophor El is rashes. On week #4, I noticed a small patch of blister like rashes. My local doctor thought it was from some kind of allergy and treated it as such. As weeks went by, I noticed my rash came and went as my chemo schedule. For example, rash got worse on Monday and Tuesday and got better by Friday - very similar to my tireness schedule. I finally got my oncologist attention and she comfirmed that this is a side reaction of Cremophor. She assured me that besides discomfort, it does not impose any life threaten danger. I think I can handle this. So taxol continues:).


 

Rashes on both of my hands and arms. They come and go with the cycle of my chemo, that is more rashes on Monday to Wednesday and less on Thursday and Friday.

After the chemo on Friday, we headed to Mall of America. We stayed at Homewood Suites by Hilton right across street from the Mall. We did some shop of course. Kids had a great time with all the roller coasters.



Double heart necklace - a surprise gift from Bert. These days, we are attracted to anything pink.

Anna, Natalie and Jenny on our way to the Mall

Fun Time in the Pool

Rex took my place and he knows that is not his place

On our way back, we stopped by Milwaukee to visit our Friends Donna and Nick and their daughters Cela, Kelan and Rosie and meet up with Natalie's parent Cindy and Craig and her brother Adam. Cela is another girl who was adopted at the same time when we adopted Anna. In a way, we had a small adoption reunion. Donna and I did our version of triathelon (bike, run and swim). We biked 10 miles along Lake Michigan. Unfortunately we did not run or swim much, but we did a little bit of it so we can say we did all three events.

Meet the Wesses and Migans - two of the anhui families. Here are 8 adopted children.

I took off my wig this weekend. Actually I have been taking it off as soon as I walked in the house since the beginning. Everyone at home has seen me running around without hair. This weekend, the weather was so hot. I decided to wear a simple head wrap or scarf even when we went out. This reminds me to tell you a story - a running joke in our family is that Bert has a girl friend without hair - for more than 20 years!

About 20 years ago, Bert took Toby, then just started to speak, out shopping. They came home much later than I expected. So as soon as they walked in the door, I joked: "What took you guys so long? Did you go to visit Dad's girl friend again?". "Yep!", Toby was eager to answer. "Oh, what does Dad's girl friend look like?" I played along with Toby. "No hair!" He said seriously. We have been retelling and laughing about this over and over again for 20 years. Last weekend, when Bert and I retold this story again, we realized that this is true now. He does have a bald girl friend now!!

Head wrap