Now that I am back at work, I declare round four of chemo to be over, despite some residual leg pain. Speaking of leg pain, it is caused by the evil Neulasta and its tendency to cause white blood cell production. Before each dose of chemo, my white blood cell count, along with sixty-two other things, is tested. Since I have had a good count each time, Matt asked if it would be possible for me to get a lower dose of Neulasta, and hopefully a corresponding decrease in pain. Dr. Oncologist thought it was a good idea, and I received a mere 4mg instead of the standard 6mg.

For all the usual reasons, I don't really remember the exact timeline. According to Matt, I exhibited fewer signs of pain than normal. In fact, for the first day, I didn't require my happy pills. However, with less pain comes a greater realization of nausea. In other words, I experienced prolonged, acute nausea. And by acute, I mean barfing all over the floor because I wasn't able to get out of bed with any speed.

Of course, Matt had an out of town interview during the middle of this disaster, leaving me alone with Mom to defend me from the puke. Unfortunately, just taking pills was enough to make me barf, which is a particularly annoying problem when you are trying to take anti-nausea pills. Let's just say Mom had to call Matt, the doler of medicine, quite a few times.

Apparently she wasn't destined to get more than one consecutive hour of sleep as I woke up screaming due to a particularly bad nightmare that night. I vaguely remember crying and apologizing, and Mom saying something about it not being my fault and I didn't do it on purpose.

The nausea seemed to last forever, also known as way longer than on any previous occasion. And after it finally went away, it came back. Just to make me miserable. Yesterday I planned on going to work, but I decided to back to bed and try not to barf instead. Not fun.

I'm not sure what will dose I'll receive for round five, but I'm not looking forward to it regardless.