CHEMO BEGINS

Friday, July 31 – 1:00 pm – Time for my first chemotherapy treatment. My sister-in-law (and dear, dear friend), Kathy Thompson, is accompanying me to the Cancer Clinic. There are no gorgeous men to fall in love with, but that really isn’t the purpose, now is it? The room has a bunch of lounge chairs and one other lady there for treatment. She is a bit of a baby about needles. Not me! I’m psyched and ready to get the show on the road. (Anyone buy that?)

The nurse inserts a needle shaped like a ‘7’ into my port-a-cath and connects me to a bag of saline solution to flush the vein. Two more bags of solution marked “A” and “C” are attached. According to (the adorable) Dr. Patel, the “A” bag contains Adriamycin (Adria-my-cin--wasn’t that a 1950s perfume) or Doxorubicin (which my friends call dox-oh-roo-bi-sin-da-da-do-wah-diddy-diddy-do). The “C” bag contains cyclophoshamide (sye-kloe-FOSS-fa-mide) or Cytoxan (sye-Tox-an). Big words for big chemicals to whack the The Thing! A fourth bag of solution is added that contains anti-nausea medicine. The entire process takes about 90 minutes, during which Kathy and I play “Go Fish with this over-sized deck of cards.

Drip, Drip, Drip Kathy and the big cards













HAIR AFFAIR – THE SEQUEL
It’s a given that the chemo will push all my hair out by the roots, but I am not letting The Thing dictate my hair either! I am taking the high road and starting the process myself. Once again, Dianne Balderrama comes to the rescue by snipping away my tresses. I don’t know if I will get used to having short hair (of if I will have time to get used to it!) but everyone seems to like it. It sure has a lot of curl when it is short! The upside is that I can go from shower to office in a much shorter time. Less hair, less shampoo, less mousse, less…well, you get the picture! When the first tresses start falling out, Dianne is going to get the clippers and we’re going to buzz me and pull out the wigs! (Do not wait for photos of the buzz cut—not happening!)