Cancer Perks

• When people post a photo of you with no hair (or a cute hat) on Facebook, you get a crazy number of "likes" 
• Sometimes people notice you're feeling unwell while waiting in line and insist on paying for your shopping (seriously, just happened to me today, a very sweet retired nurse whose husband is going through chemo too)
• You get to go to "cancer makeup class", get a bunch of fancy makeup you'd never buy yourself, and meet some other awesome women
• People give you special brownies, and show up at your door with scarves, chocolate, and wonder-woman underwear
• You get to spend lots of quality time catching up with your friends during chemo sessions; way easier than scheduling coffee dates with everyone
• A sore tongue (yes unfortunately it's back, although not as bad as before) gives you a guilt-free excuse to eat ice cream

No news is good news!

Nothing very exciting to report from this week's chemo appointment - no allergies (yay!), lovely company, really nice nurses as always.  The only annoyance was another loooooong appointment.  However, given that we got several dirty looks from people in various waiting rooms who seemed to be grumpy that we were having a fun time, and got to overhear multiple people complaining about how long they were waiting, and that the snow didn't start so our commute home was pretty brief, I can't complain.  

My friend Laura was with me and got to meet Dr. Kaplan, so she's now convinced that between my crush on him and Chris Hadfield, I have a thing for eloquent nerds.  She's probably right.  

Hoping for a better week with fewer cold symptoms and hopefully few chemo side-effects.  Wish me luck!

For Those Who Were Curious...

No allergic reaction to the Taxol thus far, but I've had a brutal cold all week that's been keeping me in bed watching Gilmore Girls reruns.  The kind of cold that, a few months ago, I would have completely ignored and now is kicking my ass.  Have I mentioned that I am pretty much all done with this chemo thing yet?  11 weeks and counting...

Short Interlude

This chemo thing is so weird.  

I keep thinking I’ll get more data as I go further through this, and then I’ll be more prepared and know what to expect, except every time is so different.  

This past session of AC I was just wrecked.  As in, it felt like a semi-truck rolled into me and kept right on going.  It’s not like it should be that surprising; but for someone who’s used to arranging multiple activities per day on the weekend because the kids and I really like to be out and about, it’s disconcerting to be able to manage about 30 minutes of playtime before needing want to go back to bed.  

However, I'm now officially DONE with AC!  And today (right now as I write this) I'm starting my new round of chemo, a drug called Taxol.  I'm here for a long time today because they're pumping me full of steroids and benadryl in case I get an allergic reaction and I get my first dose of herceptin too (also known as Trastuzumab, which sounds like a Romanian Vampire name to me, I love it).  I'm hoping that after the first couple treatments (12 in all, once per week) I'll have a better guess as to how I'll feel throughout, although of course given my AC experience you never know.

In the meantime, I brought my copy of Girls of Atomic City, which I'm reading for bookclub, along with me today, and had a long conversation with Dr. Kaplan about WWII.  I also learned that he served during the Vietnam War by working with a bunch of crazy smart cancer researchers here in the US.  They were told to go buy some uniforms at the store and when they found out they cost $300 they came back told their commander that he could buy them for them himself!  He said he didn't care so they spent the entire war doing research in their jeans.  And he says he's the only one who went on to actually practice medicine; everyone else he served with is running impressive medical research clinics all around the country.  I can say I'm officially glad he's decided to practice; this whole thing is much more feasible with good friends and good doctors to help me through.

That's it for today; hopefully I'll try to post this week and let folks know how Taxol is going.  Hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving and Channukah celebrations!