Chemo- Day #1

And it begins in earnest. I had a bit of a restless night, due to the steroids they put me on the day before treatment, the day of, and the day after, but no complaints about them! I have plenty of energy, and a whoppin' big appetite!

They seem harmless enough...

What is the deal, by the way? I have woken up before my alarm like some kind of morning person every day this week! I do not anticipate this lasting. Of course, going to bed between 8:30 or 9 instead of 10:30 or 11 will do that to a body, I guess.

This is not a complaint about our crazy April ice storm, but for documentation purposes, this is what it looked like out my bedroom window this morning:

Frozen rain for 24 hours, followed by a heavy, wet snowfall meant no 

school for the kids 3 days in a row! A very rare occurrence in SD!

I got up with all my energy and hunger, made myself my standard morning protein smoothie with kale, greek yogurt, bananas, peanut butter, coconut milk and protein powder, took my morning steroid pills, then hopped on the bike (on the trainer in the living room), and pedaled my way through an episode of "Arrested Development." Yes, we are considering getting Netflix for the summer, just so we can watch the new stuff coming out in May!

I took a shower, put on my makeup and decided to curl my hair so it would look fabulous for my last day of long, lovely locks.

Many people have asked about the plans for my hair. I have had multiple suggestions:

1. Try and preserve it through a plan called The Rapunzel Project, where you wear a special frozen cold cap on your head and treat your hair with extra, extra care and maybe you won't loose it. We do not have the structure for this plan currently in place in our city, and the special freezers to store the caps would take some major financing to achieve. Something to look into for future patients, though!
2. Allow my children to buzz cut my hair. - Um, no.
3. Allow anyone to buzz cut my hair. Again, no.
4. I did have a fleeting thought of trying to recreate Anne Hathaway's scene from Les Misérables, and sing "I Dreamed A Dream" in anguish, then make a video to combat human trafficking. My friend Polly would totally go for that! 

Unfortunately, I know me, and while I ROCK that song, I have a feeling that my goofball nature would turn it into a total parody and the seriousness of the moment would be totally overshadowed by my Weird Al- style presentation of it. Also, I just can't bring myself to that point of sadness. I don't feel it's healthy for me right now. And when I get into a character, I REALLY get into the character.

So the most sensible option seems to be to donate it before it gets too thin to be useable (and also before it destroys my already slow-flowing bathtub drain). I am going to have a gal from our church cut it. She is a stylist, and her daughter is fighting through childhood cancer right now. On her second-to-last round of chemo today, actually. Little Ady (now age 6. Diagnosed at 4) and her family have been through so much, and are a stronger and more beautiful family because of it.

Ady in red, boogying down at our church's outdoor service this summer.

Anyway, Bekah, Ady's mom is going to cut my hair into a sweet little pixy cut tomorrow. My mom is coming with to the haircut (and there may or may not be a Les Mis soundtrack either live or running through my head), then in the afternoon, I'm going for my wig fitting with a spunky lady named Del at the Prairie Center. She came up and met with me on Tuesday, and warned me that sometimes that first time looking at the wigs is traumatic, and I may not want the news crew following me in. I told her that I'm pretty much ready for a change, and want to see the funkier of her selections. This is going to be a riot, and I'm bringing girlfriends along to help me choose. "No tears from me, I promise! We're going to have a lot of fun!"

My mom has declared that if I choose something really weird, she might have to get one as a disguise to be seen around me.  (Challenge accepted!)

Back to today...

Shortly after I got my hair all curled, and donned my spiffy new t-shirt,

Made it myself. Thank you, Hobby Lobby iron-on letters.

we packed up a lot of gear to keep me entertained, and headed over to get my port accessed for the first time in the lab. They had given me some Lidocaine cream at the pharmacy to numb the area about a half hour before they accessed the port. I did it only 15 minutes before, and didn't cover it with Saran Wrap because no one told me to, so it didn't completely do the trick, but it wasn't too bad, given how tender the area is, since I just had the thing put in there on Monday. The purpose of the port became very obvious, as I would have had to have multiple IV's run during the course of treatment. There is only a small needle poke one time per visit with the port and they leave it in until I'm done for the day.

I asked for a table, pulled out my sewing machine and got to work making a cover for the shoe box housing all my meds and supplements. It makes me happier to have them in a pretty box. This is how it eventually turned out.

Not my best work, but I couldn't find a template online. 

Oh well, better than a boring old shoe box!

I had sent out a plea to some of my friends last night when I realized that I would be trapped in a room by myself (well, with Matt) for several hours, and desperately asked for some company from a few of my besties. I got visits from Aubrey, Callie, Stacy, Aaron & Jillian, Denise & Candace throughout the course of the morning. It was nice to sit and chat with friends. As Callie said, it shouldn't take a life event like this to get us to slow down and invest in our friendships. So true! I will call on others to chill with me both during treatments, and on low-energy days. But they have to not look at me all "yucky" like Aubrey did half the time. Apparently, she does not handle bruises or scars well.

I stayed very well-hydrated through the treatments (of course, the multiple bags of fluid they pumped into me helped, and had to take my IV pole, Tim

He looks like a Tim, don't you think? Wait 'til you see Wall-E!

down to the bathroom 3 or 4 times. In the process, I discovered that one of the ladies I had encountered on Tuesday (see Snow Day), Gina- the one I prayed for, was right next door!  I wish I could say I popped in to say hello and see how she was doing, but I didn't. I kept thinking I would have plenty of opportunities, but the next time I passed by, she had a friend with her, and then she was gone... to be replaced by some fat old man drinking a big gulp of Mountain Dew with his infusion, who turned his TV on too loud! (geesh! Neighbors!)

Somedays you hear and obey, other days, you miss your opportunity.

Today's infusion included saline, 2 anti-nausea meds, then they started the chemo. First Taxotere (T), then Carboplatin (C), then Herceptin (H). This is the cocktail I will get every third Thursday for the next 18 weeks. 6 rounds, and I'm done with the big ones. The Herceptin will also be administered on the 2nd and 3rd weeks, but only takes an hour, and does not have as much nausea side effects of the T or the C. After the first 6 rounds of the "Big Chemo," I will get Herceptin every 3 weeks for a year. This is the targeted therapy that they say will just melt away the tumor, and tells my immune system to attack the cancer cells.

One of the last things they added to my cocktail was an anti-anxiety med (Ativan) to keep me from getting myself all worked up. It certainly counteracted the steroids for a while! I got pretty sleepy and boring right as my guests were leaving, and as we left the hospital. Matt & I ran to the grocery store, and got a handful of things, checked on Maia, who opted to stay a second night with her friend if she could get a change of pajamas, then headed home. Both Matt & I crashed on the couch for a while. Matt from the exhaustion of having to be an extrovert all morning, and me from the meds.

When I woke up an hour and a half later, Matt was outside scooping the front walk. Thankfully, the city had plowed our street, but of course, that means it's hard to get in and out of the driveway. We are very thankful to Rob Fitzgerald, who's wife, Amber volunteered him to snowblow us out tonight!  I told him to get what he could get. It's April 11, it's going to be melted soon anyway! Meanwhile, my neighbors are stuck in the end of their driveway... And they don't even own a shovel. Rob went over and did their driveway after doing ours.  There are some really good people in this world. Thanks, Rob!

I woke up hungry (yey!) so I took the opportunity to make an amazing meal that tasted great.

Coconut- lime chicken, with a "spring" roll mix (didn't firm up very 

well because I've never made sushi) consisting of coconut sticky 

rice, spinach, green onions, carrots, avocado and pickled ginger 

over everything (the inspiration for the meal)

Ginger is supposed to be good for fighting nausea, so I thought this would help me get a jump start!

Our dear friend Sara, showed up with a gallon of milk and for a short visit. I hope to see more of her this summer!

Matt had worship team rehearsal tonight. I was supposed to play on the team this Sunday morning, but they say that's when the world will come crashing down on me, and my energy will go south, so I backed out of playing the 3 morning services this weekend. I will play for the evening service next Sunday. I'd hate to skip out altogether. I love being on the worship team at Embrace. I will probably stick to the 605 service through the summer, as it is a more mellow atmosphere, and much less of a time commitment.

Don't worry, I'm not taking on more than I can handle. As a matter of fact, I have created 20 teams to help with various areas of my life including: meals, cleaning, gardening, fitness, nutrition/ anti-nausea/ comfort, budget, style, prayer, protection (keeping me from saying yes to things), fundraising, taking care of the kids, taking care of Matt, Garage Sale & Garage Reorganization project, Thank You notes, Productions (hoping and praying that I can still play Pinocchio in our Fairy Tale Opera in the park this summer), swimming pals, carpet replacement and furniture moving project and recommended reading lists.

Here is what I've discovered. Everyone wants to help. So this is what an extrovert with leadership tendencies does to get people mobilized!  I started thinking about all the things I do, and might need help with this summer, and came up with an entire organization. Of course, a lot of these things are only things you can do if you are close by, and/or an actual friend.  I have a lot of people who read my blog from all over the world (thank you!), or who only know me through someone else, or whom I haven't had contact with in years. That's fine! I appreciate your prayer support! Please keep up with my story, and share it! I am fine with that.

Well, that's all for today. Tomorrow is the big hair day. I'll post pictures.