Freedom!

Frank has spent almost every minute since Friday evening free in the house.

Friday night, Dave slept in the guest room with the door open, in case Frank wanted to wander back and forth, or to go back to the space and sleeping partner he was most used to (Dave has spent the past several weeks spending his nights closed in the guest room with the kitten).

However, Frank stayed with me in our room the whole night.   There was only a little dispute among cats for territory on the bed, ultimately resolved with Pete and Frank staying with me, and Annabel going off to other spots, like she usually does.

We've suspected that Frank was not actually 8 weeks old when we brought him home to foster on Dec. 14th.
In the first little bit after he started to feel better from his respiratory infection, he started sucking on Dave's ears at night.

He must have lost his mommy before he was fully weaned, and this also solidifies our belief that he was probably younger than the shelter said he was.

Friday night, he sucked on my ears for the first time.

It was so heart breaking, yet it made me giggle!  No biting, but he was definitely trying to suckle, purring furiously, and kneading my neck with his front paws.

Last night, we did the same arrangement, and  Frank slept with me all night again.  Pete and Annabel were out elsewhere in the house.

There was no ear sucking this time, but that's probably because I've always liked to pull the covers up over my ears to sleep. I sleep on my sides, and it gives me a feeling of security.

Friday night, Frank got to one of my ears early in the night, while I was still awake, and lying on my back, and he got to the other when I was awake,  right after I had come back to bed in the middle of the night, after one of my many ramblings around the house.

(I tend to get up several times per night. I just don't typically sleep very well)

He continues to grow like crazy, and everyone is getting along pretty well most of the time.  All three cats have their dinner together now!

We will probably try leaving Frank out tomorrow when we go to work.

Tomorrow, I will go get my blood draw after work again, and I am to call my nurse on Tuesday to see how things are.  My appointment for Tuesday afternoon will most likely be canceled.

The hope is that we will see another drop in the liver enzymes, though, like we did the week I was off of treatment after the first cycle, but I will probably need more time for things to completely balance out.

My nurse called me Friday to explain a protocol that is being considered for my resumption of treatment.

There is a different chemo pill available that works similarly to the one I was on for eighteen months in the past.

It's a pill that is taken daily for three weeks out of four, along with a hormone blocking pill that is taken every day, AND an injection that is given once a month.

(the previous chemo pill was the same routine of three weeks on, one week off, with a daily hormone blocker OR a monthly hormone blocking injection.  The injections gave me HORRIBLE leg cramps, all night long, so we switched to the hormone blocking pill, and instead, I got awful tendon pain and weight gain.  I've been off all hormone blockers since November, and have lost the annoying weight very easily, and experienced a reduction in my pain.)

The projected date to resume treatment with this protocol is the last Tuesday of January, when I would have been starting my third month of IV chemo, had we not suspended treatment.

If things line up with that date, it will coincide, timing wise, with when I am due to get my next monthly bone building injection.

That would be perfect, in that I can return to only having to go to the cancer center once a month, now for both shots, instead of just the one for the bones.

I can also then return to just having my port flushed every other month, instead of having treatment through it.

I hate having my port accessed!

It all depends on how my labs look this week and next.

This new chemo pill has had huge success in studies, including the fact that there is no data point on survival rates, because all of the subjects being studied are doing so well that they can't project an estimate of survival time!

We are hoping that I won't have the same side effects as I did on the previous pill... ESPECIALLY the constant mouth sores.

However, I will probably gain weight again, and develop worse tendon pain, because of the hormone blocker coming back into my daily routine.

Be that as it may, it's better than the alternative!

So, please join me in sending good thoughts for my improving blood work, and this preferred method of treatment.

I sure would like it better than going for IV chemo once a week!

We have a couple of small errands to run today, and my yoga class got moved to dinner time on Sunday nights, so I have to decide if I want to continue going.

It's sunny and windy here today.  No snow came yesterday, like it was supposed to, and we only got a little bit of rain on Friday.

Enjoy your Sunday!