This turtle does not look happy. He reminds me of how I often feel during chemotherapy. Side effects from chemo such as fatigue, anemia, skin irritation, mouth sores, poor appetite, hair loss and GI distress can make life difficult. I am currently on a “chemo vacation” because my lab results showed my bone marrow was not tolerating my treatment. According to my oncologist I “lost my bone marrow reserve”. That caused my platelets, neutrophils and hemoglobin/hematocrit to decrease. I received 5 units of blood in August due to my bone marrow problems. (Also my liver function lab values sky rocketed, another story) The good news is my labs are improving. The not so good news is I am only half way through my chemotherapy, I have 3 months to go. I have had my chemo on hold for 3 weeks now and I feel so much better. It is hard to think about going back on it. My CT scan a few weeks ago showed my 2 cancerous pulmonary nodules and the area under my left diaphragm which is also positive for cancer were becoming smaller. Hooray!!! We will eliminate one drug from my chemotherapy regimen when I restart next week in hopes that it was causing most of the problem with my bone marrow (Carboplatin). I will remain on Doxil and Avastin monthly. This is the 3rd round of chemotherapy with Carboplatin I have received (2015, 2018, and this year 2019). My oncologist explained that after receiving chemo three times in 4 years, some people lose their bone marrow reserve. That means when you receive blood transfusions with chemotherapy, your bone marrow does not kick in and make red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets at the usual rate. Since chemo causes my lab values to drop, receiving 2 units of blood only temporarily helped, I dropped down to a hemoglobin to little over 7 twice more in August. As time passed and the chemotherapy was being eliminated from my body, my lab values slowly improved. Will it happen again? We don’t know. It is a leap of faith, founded on hope. Isn’t that what life is really about anyway???