Music Monday

Here's today's musical inspiration...

Chemo vs Field Trip...Tough Call

Today is Chemo, Week 17. And it's also the day of the "best field trip" of 5th grade: Marine Science Afloat. Since I obviously have to be at chemo (and I don't do ANYTHING related to boats and/or water), Keith volunteered to chaperone this one. 

Yay for the friend who volunteered to come with me (read: chauffeur me) to chemo. And she bought me lunch. And she got to experience the mind-numbing boredom that is sitting at chemo. Yes, that is a good friend!

I do want it noted that I actually got the better end of the deal this Friday. It is COLD and WINDY out on the water and the kids are dropping like flies (puking up a storm) on this field trip. A car full of giggly 5th grade girls, plus choppy water, plus boat ride, plus the smell of vomit everywhere? Sounds like an awesome time--NOT! 

In this battle of Chemo vs. Field Trip, chemo definitely wins.

Though there is a great picture of Keith and another friend pretending to be "king of the world" a la Titanic. Hilarious!

It Starts to All Look the Same...

If you haven't checked out the blog in awhile, you're probably thinking that you haven't missed that much. You might be right, depending on how long it's been. Hmmmm, why is that?

BECAUSE IT ALL STARTS TO LOOK THE SAME!

It's like being pregnant, only WORSE, because the closer that you get to the end, the longer and slower the days go. Holy crap, I have completely lost count of where I'm at. So, let me try and update you:

After my uber busy week last week, I have pretty much curled up into a ball and died a little this week. So exhausted! And in pain (more info on that will follow).

Tomorrow (Friday) is Chemo Week #17! Only 3 more to go...Hallelujah!

We are going away for spring break! The doctor said that I could delay the next round of chemo a few days, and she okay'd a short plane trip. Vegas, here we come! Which is actually kind of funny because it may only be a two hour plane ride compared to Hawaii's six hours on the flying container of plague, but I'm pretty sure that Vegas has to be a hot bed of diseases from all over the world. Oh well, I'm just grateful to get away to somewhere warm, that isn't my house or the hospital, and pretend that I'm not a cancer patient for a little while. I wasn't going to nit-pick details with the doc.

My weeks pretty much look like: chemo...blah, blah, blah, sleep all day Sunday....blah, blah, blah, try and walk Wednesdays and Thursdays...blah, blah, blah, start it all over again on Fridays. Throw in some teenager angst (I'll be devoting an entire chapter to this in the book someday, should there be one), some kids' sports, a husband that coaches or refs just about every night, and a family that expects to eat every night (which is one of the most annoying things that they do because I could CARE LESS about dinner)...blah, blah, blah. When is it going to end?! 

Aren't you so jealous of my exciting life?

Why Don't They Tell You These Things?

Another in a long list of things that would be GREAT if they told you up front: my hair is starting to grow back. Which I was told wouldn't happen until well after chemo had ended. 

So, when I have to shave my legs on Sunday...and notice that there is slightly more hair on my head on Monday morning than there was the day before...I do what most people in my situation would do. I FREAK OUT! Because surely this means that the CHEMO ISN'T WORKING, right?! 

MAJOR freaking out going on here over the past few days. I've decided that all hope is lost and started considering plans that I should be making. Seriously, it's a little scary to think that all this time and effort I've put in to something that has made me feel like crap and now might not have worked. UGH!

Well, I broke my own "don't look up anything on the Internet" rule (seriously, it is a good one because the stuff you find online about cancer is CRAZY talk for the most part. And can be confusing and contradicting). This morning I typed in "hair growing back during chemo" and I discovered a whole host of women asking the same thing. Because we're all freaking out, for obvious reasons. Because they tell you your hair WON'T grow back until chemo is done. From what I can tell, every single one of them on the WebMD and BreastCancer.org blogs about this topic were all on Taxol, and all had 4 weeks left to go when their hair started growing back in small amounts. (All still had their eyebrows and eyelashes falling out though, which just doesn't make any sense, but is exactly what is happening to me).

Imagine that! That's me. 16 weeks in, 8 of them Taxol, 4 weeks of Taxol to go...presto.

At least I can breathe a small sigh of relief, right? I won't die before my next treatment. Or make myself crazy imagining the worst. Is it really too much to ask for someone to type at the bottom of the pamphlets, "Hey, don't worry if your hair does start to grow back when you have four weeks left to go. It happens...don't freak out. The chemo is still working."

Music Monday

I think I missed last week's Music Monday. Whoops!

Here's one from a group that I love...and an interesting video...