1/2 way there...

Well, I'm sitting in the chemo chair waiting for my 3rd treatment. So far (knock on wood and hope I don't jinx myself) I have been fairing much better than expected. Yeah!

Some of my biggest hurdles have been:

• Getting to the treatments - Atlanta traffic is horrible and I'm over it. And, next year, when I do our taxes and calculate our medical expenses for 2008, can I include these insane gas prices?


• Remembering my numbing cream - There is this wonderful cream that will numb the skin and nerves around my port site. (Port: (n) the little mechanical window into my blood stream that lives under the skin on my chest) I have to use the cream 30-45 minutes before they punch a 1 inch needle into me for hooking up the IV. I've had 7 treatments so far, I think I've remembered to use the cream 4 times.


• Feeling OK - I'm still 15 pounds overweight. Darn-it! I'm blaming the steroids and the general fatigue (less walks in the n'hood) for counter-acting any decrease in calories I have been able to amass.
  


• Remembering to take my steroid pills - I am supposed to take a steroid called Decodron twice daily, the day before a chemo treatment, the day of, and the day after. Of course, I did it properly the first time because I was so nervous about the whole thing. Second time, I remembered the afternoon before, ran to Publix to get the pills, took all 4 with a Pharmacist prescribed milkshake for carb loading. (Not a bad punishment to make up for a mistake.) Now, today, the 3rd treatment. The nurse asks if I remembered - and of course I had not thought about it until that exact moment - YIKES! So, now, they are dripping a big dose into my system before I can have the real drugs. I hate being brain dead, which leads into...
  


• Juggling normal life with Chemo-Brain: (adj.) the fuzzy, cloudy, unfocused feeling cancer patients struggle with, but others can't really help with. Examples I've read about: One mom poured orange juice on her son's cereal. And she also waited expectantly for a return phone call only to realize she forgot to make the original call. Another woman poured gravy into water glasses on the dining room table and yet another who ordered olives for dinner. I'd put in some of my own examples, if I could remember them. Need I say more?
  

So there you have it. My sister Karen has just shown up with my coffee and chicken biscuit. Gotta go.