Round 3

The day began at 7:30 am as a volunteer picked me up to transport to the cancer center. My sister Deb had just sent me a box with 2 new hats, and I decided that I would prefer not to wear my beautiful new wig and expose it to germs and yuck, so I selected the aqua blue cool boy hat - the color was delightful and cheery.

After the usual drill (check in, vitals, blood draw, start IV through port) I got the good news that my white cell count was at 289! Yeah! The nurse discussed symptoms from the first two rounds, and decided to see if we could use different meds than the benedryl that gives me headaches and makes me feel like I am passing out. Yes, we will try hydrocortisone.

Just as things were settling, my friend Baiba, who happens to be a chaplain at Strong, came to chat. We had delightful conversation, and she brought me some good books in case I felt like reading (one of which I ended up taking home). The Rituxan drip had to stay slow as I was experiencing side effects - tingling in my hands and feel, nausea, itching. Sigh. Another long day ahead.

After Baiba left I was delightfully surprised when Diane peeked around the curtain! How nice to have a friend stop by. She brought her game Cranium (not craniotomy! got that wrong last time!) but we chatted our time away, so she showed my how to play and let me take it home to give it a whirl. We will set up a time to play some piano duets when I am feeling better.

I exchanged cancer stories with the patient in the recliner across from me. She has been undergoing chemo since December - 6 months! Wow. How difficult a time she is having. At the tender age of 33 with 2 young children, her breast cancer has metastasized to her liver. If the 12 month chemo doesn't help she is out of options. But so far most of the 50 tumors have either shrunk or disappeared. At least she doesn't have to work outside the house - she was happy to be spending time home with the kids.

As the day wore on, I grew more tired, took on more meds, ordered a disappointing cottage cheese and fruit plate lunch that ended up being a small container of the cottage cheese and a sealed cup of fruit cocktail, dozed a bit, did my dot to dots, played with Einstein (a new electronic brain stimulator my friend Sissie sent me! - I love it), listened to some new CDs I checked out of the library - I especially like the Tallis choral works and the Prokofiev piano sonatas) and watched the clock slowly work its way past first shift into the second one.

At last I was able to call my new friend for a ride home, getting there at 6pm, hungry and exhausted. One more infusion down, three more to go. Getting there.