Starting Chemo May 2008

LOL Jean!  What a HOOT!  I bet all the other patients loved the entertainment!  Congratulations!

OK, here goes nothing.  Let's see if I can insert it properly this time.

you guys are all bananas and I love it!

 Jean, I was at my BF's Pirate birthday party ( my BF is 35 going on 12) in June and needed a wooden boob for that..... where was your creativity that day?? My terrible chemo brain could not work out a way to attach a coconut to myself to go under my skull and crossbones bikini( hey, when you have a BF that is a Pirate nut, what else do you wear to his birthday party?)

I think I am just going to have to do a fake pole dance at my Herceptin IV session just to compete with y'all!!!!  

 I got called in to do last minute live TV promos for the store on my local breakfast TV show for tomorrow morning... so I have to be up at 4:30... and since my usual bedtime is 1 am, I have to fight to get to sleep early tonight. Tomorrow afternoon I am taking my ds and his friend to the Toronto Exhibition for rides and cotton candy and such. It will be a long long day!

Linda, your shot was worth the wait! 

 I am babbling moron, who is overtired and has tried 3 times to go for a bike ride in the last 24 hours. I have blown my tire twice... which I hope means it will not blow in the race on Sunday!!!! 

 I am off to bed. Love to everyone and chemoooo!

Jean and Linda,

Your photos are awesome!!!! Jean, love the coconuts (how creative) and Linda, wow! those sultry pumps are killer. So happy you're all doing well. Sue, good luck with the pups...keep us posted when you get home.

Yay, Jean!!!  Done, done, done....

Well, not exactly.  You have to get through the SE's of this round, of course.  It's kinda frustrating when people hear that you've just had your last chemo treatment, and they say, "Boy, I'll bet it feels great to be all finished"--right about the time you feel queasy enough to lose that jello you managed to eat for lunch (etc.).  But I guarantee that, as the days inch toward when that next treament would have been, it REALLY feels good to be finished!

Both you and Linda look like you were having way too much fun at your infusion centers.  Mine was a bare-bones facility (no colors, no draperies, no private rooms, no video monitors, no bookshelves, no free lunch), and nobody was laughing except the chemo nurses.  It was okay, though, and the weeks went by much more quickly than I thought they would.  I wish I'd had the nerve to do a pole dance.  The chemo nurses, plus my onco's nurse, all came in and did a line dance, singing, "It's your last chemo day... It's your last chemo day... (etc.).  That was cute.  No photos available, though.

Camp Recovery is a lot of fun--way more fun than Camp Chemo!

otter 

Linda,

Didn't see your post before. Love thos cfm shoes....wooo. You and Jean are both hot babes. I am most proud of you. Your photos intimidate me in the best way. You are the best....missing the rocker.

Glad y'all liked the pole dance pix!  Thanks for the compliments on the shoes - believe it or not, they're actually flats (and incredibly comfortable).  There's something sexy about that strap, though.

Eddie - dressing as a pregnant nun - that is TOO funny!  My boyfriend's niece is the token Jew at a Catholic high school . . . maybe I should suggest that she masquerade as a pregnant nun this Halloween?  It'll endear me to her parents when she's kicked out and they have to find a new school for her.  Speaking of Halloween costumes, for the last few years, my daughter and her friends have been way into what I think of as "conceptual" costumes . . . dressing as "the elements" (earth, fire, air, water) or "the seasons," etc.  I've been lobbying her to go as one of those Texas Fundamentalist LDS cultists this year (with the weird hair upsweep and a pastel prairie dress), just because I think it would be a hoot, but she and her buddies are working on a Goddess theme.  (She plans to be, er, Aphrodite.)

A few random hair notes . . . my head is getting fuzzier and fuzzier.  My daughter was critically inspecting it the other day, and announced that what wasn't white was black, rather than my normal brown.  "Weird, but cool," was her verdict.  "You'll look like a dalmatian."  (I love her frankness . . . it's saved me from some major fashion mistakes in the past.  Nothing gets sugar-coated, that's for sure.)  My eyebrows, meanwhile, are getting sparser and sparser.  I've developed a bit of an eyebrow obsession.  Yesterday I was having a difficult conversation with someone at work, and kept getting distracted by her overplucked eyebrows, wondering, "why do you DO that to yourself?"  I'm trying to draw mine in to look as normal as possible - no fancy arches or curlicues - but that's getting harder as the guide-hairs disappear.  The big challenge, I find, is color.  The saleswoman at Sephora steered me to a light brown pencil (I was reaching for something darker), warning me of the dreaded Groucho Marx effect.  But it doesn't look quite right . . . sigh.

(Noelle, I know you were complaining about your mutant curly eyebrows, which cracked me up, but I tell you what: I'd sport big, fuzzy caterpillar brows if I could!  I think I miss my brows more than the hair on my head.)

Randie and Cristine, wishing you uneventful chemo sessions and minimal SEs.  Everyone else - have a great day.  One more day at work, then I'm headed off to NYC (Brooklyn) for an extra-long Labor Day weekend.

Linda

 I'm here Cris!!!! Me and you today, eh?

Sorry , yesterday was hectic.  Had to do my next to last blood draw...who hoo...and I got the nice young man who is a sci fi geek like my family, so we can actually chat about non blood related topics! On the subject of blood, I am dreading the results because the last couple days I have foudn myself really tired and out of breath, betting my hemoglobin is low, but since only one more round I will NOT let them give me the booster death ray shot..lol

Plus, I have found that homeschooling and chemo are a tough mix.  The kids don't start any extra enrichment classes until mid-sept and even though we started 8/18, I refuse to budge from the Labor Day start. They have been pretty much just working on math andreading.  My 16 yo started classes at the junior college this week.  I signed him up for Astronomy and Physical Geography.  All the math and english classes have been cut back (thank you my loser governator and stupid ass california legislators who can;t pass a budget to save their lives.  After all, other than the budget, what else shoudl they be working on???? Come on, if we treated our jobs they same way they do, how many of us would still have the job?  I know, I am ranting, but they cut a lot of services out here in the sticks and now they want to raise the tax rate.  I say fire the whole bunch and start again!) Back to my kids, lol, because of that, it was hard to find him classes that didn't have the math and english as requirements.  Humanities was one, but he looked horrified when I showed him the outline.  He was even more horrifed when I told him it was a college requirement and eventually he would ahve to take it. My poor little science geek!

Last night, I had to bake something for the nurses, so they are getting chocolate banana bread and chocolate peanut butter bars.  I didn;t have to take the steroids, but I was still really amped about today.  So there you have it.

I amdreading the heat today, yesterday we were over 100, and the same today, yech.  So, to make a long ramble short, someplace cool would be nice.  How about next time we meet in Northern Japan, in a nice tea house looking up at a snow covered mountain?????

CHEMOOOOOOOOOO and hope we have nice sticks today!!

randie

randie

Randie - Yay, you're here!  I hear you about the governator ($6.55 my a$$ for state workers!  And I'm bringing in half the supplies my little one's Kindergarten teacher needs!  Pass the budget, for crimeny's sake!!)  O.K., on to other issues...still anxious about today.  My IBS is acting up.  Constipation will not be a problem - TMI?!  And I can't imagine trying to home school right now - I'm so glad they're back in school!  And you're still baking, besides?  You are my new hero. 

Eddie - Thanks for the chant - it will be my mantra today.

Okay, dh is out of the shower, my turn now.  Catch you all later!

Chemoooooo!!!!!!

Sable, my nose hairs are growing back like crazy.  Trust me--we can do without them!

Linda, I have no idea what color my hair is going to be.  It was white/gray when it first started coming back in, but now it's about half an inch long and pretty dark.  Brown?  DARK brown?   My natural color has always been red-brown, or as I've gotten older, brown with red highlights.  I don't see any red there at all.

Cris and Randie, how did your day go?

Oh, and Randie, your ds the science geek will be fine.  I, too, was a science geek.  My favorite nap times in high school were during 10th grade English class and 11th grade social studies. 

So, of course I majored in science stuff in college, and overloaded my schedule with science electives.  After it was all done, guess what my favorite college courses were?

... "Political Philosophy", "The Modern American Novel", and "Science and the Humanities".  Go figure.

Actually, the reason was simple:  those 3 courses required me to read like crazy, and then think about and discuss (and argue) what I'd read.  That never happened in a science course, the way they were taught when I was in college.  Science courses were "just the facts, please."  I thought I liked that, but now, so many years later, I realize that it was the humanities and philosophy courses that really made me think. 

What is everybody planning to do this weekend?  Anything special?  We've been up on our boat this week, but we're heading home tomorrow because things get too crazy and loud on the lake on weekends.   Plus, we have to keep an eye on crazy Hurricane Gustav.  Gotta go check the hurricane forecast.

otter 

You guys have been veeeeeewwwy quiet today.  Hmmmmm....that's unusual.

Cristine,

I am so so sorry you have to go through this delay. I did too when I got shingles and it is slightly devastating. What those of us on DD all need to remember is that most people did six months of chemo as a stadard. I know how sad you must feel and you can know we will all be here waiting and supporting. You'll get through. I like your good news better and hope your SE are minimal for the next many weeks.

Otter,

This weekend? Trying to keep a low profile but I am taking my boys to see the show Shrek which is heading straight to Broadway after its Seattle run. Plus some BBQs and walking and school supply shopping --the ususal. I am looking forward to a three-day weekend not tied to chemo.

 Randie, you are home free now, right? You are done, done, done.

Goodnight all. 

holy crap! You guys have been quiet! I have been AWOL for 24 hours and very little writing has happened.

 Chris- well that totally sucks, but we will be waiting for you and Gracie. 

 RanD, I love to bake too, I use it for stress relief mostly. For some reason I barely bake during chemo though. I have made my raspberry jam, and have damson plum jam at the ready (had a bad recipe, so I had to put it in the fridge and get more plums)  My mom left none of her recipes for me... and I am making a lot of stuff up as I go along to try and match her jams. I am going to try moms recipe( we forced her to write this one down) for Betsy Ross pickles next week. 

I was at the Toronto Exibition ( a huge late summer country fair/ amusement park) after I finished on TV yesterday morning. So, I got up at 4:30 (remember I am a terrible night owl) after 3 hours sleep and was on TV for 3 hours, had a 1/2 hour nap and went to the EX with my ds and his friend and spent $200 on junk food and teaching the two 9 year old why the games of chance never really work and almost no one wins the BIG stuffed animals...you should have seen their faces when the carnie told them he would guarantee they won the big toy they coveted if they spent $80 on games..... my ds got quite depressed by it all. My bf came for dinner time and took him on some rides that the other boy would not go on... 

All in all it was a day for the kids and I stood in the cold wind ( the EX is next to Lake Ontario and it was a slightly rainy day) getting stared at by the normals. I had the leftovers of my TV makeup on, so I at least had some version of eyebrows.  I walked for almost 7 hours with them, and today I am wiped!!! God knows I could not have done all that walking while on chemo, so I am happy I could make my kids summer dream of spending a day like this with mom come true. Truthfully, I was worried I would not be able to walk that much and I would have to make them take breaks.  

  My fingernails are officially toast. The top third of all but one thumb are totally separated from the nailbed, but the upcoming growth looks healthy. I think this must mean that the damage was done quite a while ago. I have to find out how long it takes for nails to show damage. The info on this site says many chemos can do it, so could it have been theA/C and not the Taxol?? 

 I am scared to take the polish off my toes. 

 chemooooo to all in treatment/ S/E land and big hugs to everyone else!

N