#31 and FOLFIRI is Kicking my Ass Again...

Yikes, what can I say but someone must have found it an amusing little gag to convince  me that FOLFIRI would be a cake-walk compared to FOLFOX. Wrong,wrong, on so many levels wrong. They continue to be stingy with the Atropine and I am left with hours upon hours of stomach cramps, sour guts and internal gas. This is all very new to me since I have had very few problems with my guts since my surgery. Add to that the newly sparked back pain (which may be lingering nerve damage from the botched epidural I had last year - my doc has put me on gabipenton to try to alleviate the pain, but it could take several weeks to work. Next question - is my liver swelling as a reaction to the new chemo, or worst possibility of all, is it advancing?  Either way, she has seen fit to put me on a regular dosing regime of Dexamethasone - which will like cause weight gain and moon face. Add to the the anti-cholinergic side effects like dry mouth and dry eyes and it makes for a very sick, tired girl who is no fun at all to be around.  All very interesting concerns that the sooner the better we can get figured out will be nice. The pain and the unknowing is driving me slowly insane.  Unfortunately, my next CT isn't booked until the third week of April, so I need to get used to being in the dark once again.
As a result of all these things, I am getting very little sleep, so here I am!

I am looking forward to giving you the down-low on our trip to Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica. We left on my birthday after spendng a great evening with Andy, Pearl, Juston and Marta the night before our flight. That means we got to fly on my birthday - in first class, mimosas and all. It was a very nice treat that we don't engage in very often...

Mimosa and a touch TV screen with remote? The man was in heaven.

Getting ready to board

More mimosas...and the blankets and pillows were a welcome sight as well.

Thank you Air - Transat for the best flight ever.

The trip itself was magnificent on all accounts - the weather, the accomodations, the food, the entertainment and the staff were all incredible.  

The view of our room from our favorite pool location where Tim could play pool volleyball to his heart's content:

And dominate, he did...

It is our dream to own a nice hammock one day - love it!

Breakfast on Day 1

We took daily walks along the very long beach front...

The water was so shallow, warm and the loveliest turquoise color you could imagine.

Add caption

Don't think they liked our attention but...

We made some friends along the beach..

Tim got to meet Bob Marley...

Had a tour of the grounds - complete with my very own bouquet of all the flowers...

We had some lovely meals - dinner at Jasmine's

Tempura and Spring Rolls

Fresh rolls

Dinner at Neptune's

I had the smoked  pork

And Tim had the tuna steak

We spent our evenings playing pool, ping pong and

shuffleboard,

Enjoying a few bevvies...

We became huge fans of the Lychee Martini

Tim surprised me with a private candlelight dinner on the beech at sunset - it was the most amazing romantic night ever...

 We had an amazing night and a glorious sunset - best birthday gift a girl could ask for!

The next day we took and excursion to YS Falls where we were able to do some zip-lining and swimming in the falls:

Geared up...

My first jump...

Third jump - longest, fastest and bumpiest - SO FUN!

Tim's final jump.

 And then off to the waterfalls...

So friggin' cold

Warmer on his lap

Tim jumping into the falls...

 

So beautiful

 Best holiday of my life and I can't say enough good things about it!