Jan. 16-Last Chemo-Day 2

Yes, yesterday was my last chemo treatment!  Very exciting, and even though I'm not looking forward to the next week or so of side effects...it's nice knowing that it will all be the last of it!  I'll get back to chemo, first I need to update on my appointment with the doctor on Monday.

I had lab work done and then saw the oncologist like usual right before chemo.  I was able to find out some good news in that right after I see him next I can return to work!!!  So the plan is that if all of my lab work continues to come back normal I will be back at Peas in a Pod on February 5th!!!  The bad news is that he said my port that I receive my chemo through has to stay in for a year.  This means having to deal with it during the bathing suit/tank top season.  I've already decided that I'm not going to buy a bunch of new suits and stuff to hide it...it's going to be a part of me a little longer so I need to just deal with it and the looks/questions that may come with it.  As far as radiation goes, that will all get set up when I see the doctor again on Feb. 4th.  I didn't get any other questions answered by him regarding this (at this point he had the door open & was half way out of the office so I got just the info. I really needed:). One of the nurses said that 99% of the time a woman in my case would have 33 sessions of radiation.  I also know that this is given 5 days a week at the cancer center...I am going to get VERY good at that drive to Battle Creek!  Something that you can pray about for me would be that I get an afternoon appointment (I would have the same appointment time everyday) so that it would not interfere with work but also that my time is early enough that I will be home in time to get the kids off of the bus.  Looking for a 1 or 2pm appointment ideally.

After I left my appointment, I went and did some shopping.  At Kohl's I had a gift card to spend from Christmas so as usual I hit the clearance racks!  I have this thing where I just take anything that I remotely like or think I could like that is in a good price range ($3-$12.00) to the dressing room.  I think I counted 17 things or so that I took in.  Well I had my wig on & knew it was not going to hold up to all of that trying on so I just took it off!  Normally if I had my real hair and tried on all of that I would walk out looking like I'd been rubbing my hair against a balloon for 10 minutes & it would be flat.  So another positive that I found in the wig as I popped it back on & headed out of the dressing room looking just as good as when I went in!

One of the ways that some don't realize that chemo affects your body is that it throws it into a type of menopause.  My research on this isn't extensive by any means although I do need to do some online reasearch while I am down this week.  But basically, you could either be sent into a permanent menopause or there is a chance that when the chemo is all finished that everything will return to normal.  This may be TMI for some readers but for me I have had my cycle do all different things since starting chemo to the point now that it seems to be absent.  And the best side effect of all...hot flashes!  (Anyone who has gone through them can totally understand that the previous statement was complete sarcasm).  I mostly have them at night and there is just really no way to sleep through them.  You take off some or all of the covers and finally cool off & fall back to sleep only to wake again ice cold because you have no covers on so you cover yourself back up to get warm & then an hour later...another hot flash!  Like I said, haven't done much research so I'm not sure if I'm hoping for this to be permanent menopause or temporary.  Wouldn't it be interesting if I am getting to "try out" menopause before I have the real thing in say 10 or so years from now?!

Sorry for such a long post but I also want to share about chemo yesterday.  My Dad, Mom & Sister went with me and it worked out great as the chemo area was not busy at all & so we were able to get a chair off in a corner to accommodate everyone to sit around me.  I got started much quicker than usual too because of their not being many other patients.  The best surprise of the day (and there were many) was when my Aunt Barb & Aunt Loretta came in to sit with me for a while!  As many of you know, my Aunt Barb has been battling cancer very courageously for 2 years (at least) now.  She is still undergoing chemo is has no scheduled last chemo like I was having yesterday so it was very bittersweet to think about our two situations.  She has an amazing attitude about the whole thing and her faith in God is so inspiring.  She brought me 4 pink roses, one for each of my chemo treatments:).  Well with all of the visiting & the fact that everything went so quickly, it was a quick session & I was leaving at about 1:50!  We stopped at Wendy's for a celebratory Frosty.  I love their new value size Frosty's. They are so tiny but perfect for a girl who just had chemo:). When we got out of the car at Wendy's my Dad opened the trunk