Pressing On

So here I sit in my comfy teal lounge chair near the window where a mossy, knarled, ancient oak tree shields us from the windows of the next building.  Yes! You guessed! It must be the chemo room at the Cancer Clinic! Most of the lounge chairs around me are filled with people dozing, doing crosswords, reading or chatting. There's a 20 something guy and an 80 something guy and some guys in between.  A couple ladies here have funky, super short haircuts that make them look pretty hip. They have obviously finished their hair-losing treatments and are on the road back. It makes me wonder what their hair looked like before they started all this. It's interesting to see familiar faces. For example, the fellow next to me yesterday was back today for his last treatment.  So encouraging, hopefully it's his last forever.  I saw something else familiar today.  For the ladies: have you ever shown up to an event in the same dress as someone else? Well I haven't, but I no...

What is this you ask??  It's the end of 32 "dates" with my husband.  For the dose dense chemotherapy I've been on for the last 8 weeks, each round has required 8 injections of a white blood cell booster called Neupogen. Not injected by a nurse, mind you, but by my dear hubby (well, I could have done it myself, but... no.) He was such trooper!  He hated it possibly more than I did, so that's REALLY a lot. I am forever indebted to him :)  I just hope I never have to return the favour.   What a great night it was last night.  Our last "date", as we euphemistically called them. Next Friday will be even better when we don't have to crack a new box and stare down 8 more dates!   YEY YEY YEY! 

AN ODE TO MY WIG (with help from a daughter) If you have hair  You may not care what I have to say of a wig. But if you are bald You may be called To pay extra attention - give a fig! With my hair gone And the wig on Most say they cannot tell, It is a fact  And surprising that My new hair is an easy sell. Showers are short I'm glad to report, No washing/conditioning for me! I'm sleeping more, Headed out the door With my blow dryer buried deep. I just pop on my style With a knowing smile, It looks the same everyday! Why would I go back  To the style I lacked When my hair was my own, no way! Ok, well I probably will go back to my own hair (just because it's' weird not to) but, seriously, this is the best hair I've every had! And I absolutely hate the whole hair styling thing. Not to mention I never have to cut or colour this...  So what if it feels like a hat? Nothing feels worse on your head than a b...

Gosh, has it been 10 days?  Had a bit of tougher time this round, it took about 9 days to feel right again and then I launched in to making sure school and food was taken care of.  I didn't feel terrible, just not well and not very energetic or enthusiastic. Or motivated.  And sometimes not pleasant ; ) I had round 4 today which will include the last round of the injections needed from my husband : ).  The next 4 rounds of chemo will be spaced 3 wks apart, supposedly allowing my white blood cells to catch up without the help of a very expensive shot. I feel ok right now, the anti-nausea meds make me dizzy and tired, but overall I'm ok. My next chemo session is in 2 weeks before which I need to get a MUGA test to measure the output of my heart (I think).  I'm too chicken to see what that involves yet, so I can't share.  They mentioned "injection". Then I go for 2 consecutive days to get the treatments. It involves 2 different drugs so they want to make s...

I'm on the upswing from this Wednesday's chemo round!  It went well, having chemo on New Year's Eve.  I was there in my easy chair with a bunch of other people who didn't want to be there even more than usual.  The nurses were anxious to get on with their celebratory plans and the patients were (if they were like me) wishing we could just get on with life. We had a nice New Year's, I made it till about 10, when I basically stopped getting off the couch, but it was better than I thought it might be. I was largely down and out for Friday and Saturday but I feel measurably better today (Sunday) - like well enough to marshall my troops to put the Christmas decorations away, albeit slowly.  I'm sure they prefer me being a little less well. It feels like it's been rough around here since Christmas; we've all been sick in one way or another.  My last healthy one came down with the fever Friday. I thought she'd escaped!  I'm really hoping I've es...