3rd chemo done!

I had an afternoon treatment yesterday, so we left the house a bit before 1. My 2 pm blood draw was a little different than the previous ones. He used the green light vein finder to check all my veins on both hands and one arm before he committed to using one. It seemed to go in OK, but then he had trouble getting the blood samples out. We put my hand lower and warmed it up, and he sort of pulled and massaged my hand around it to get all the samples this time. 

 

The veins show up much better in person than in pic. 

I look like a topographical map of mountains!

Then I got weighed and had my vitals checked at 3, then met with the oncologist. She checked the tumor and said it has definitely shrunk and softened, and it would be hard to find it if she didn’t know where it was. So good news! She also checked my head and said I had inflamed hair follicles (folliculitis) and prescribed a gel for it.  

I got to my chemo appointment about 4:15 and they started my anti-nausea drips right away, then we waited for the AC drugs to arrive. And waited… I believe the drugs actually got started at 6 pm, and we left there about 7:30. The nurse (Suzie again, so it was nice to see a familiar face!) said that the day before one of the hoods that they have to make the drugs under had failed, but they’d had it repaired and she hadn’t heard more. Plus they had a lot of people out due to covid. She said she caught covid about 3 weeks ago but it was mild. She apologized profusely for the delay, but it was fine. I’m just glad they have enough staff to continue my treatments! She spent a lot of time chatting with us about all sorts of things, and Frank and I did a word puzzle, I read and listened to Jenny’s playlist, I told stories about why I have a stuffed pig, took funny photos of myself, and I ate through nearly all the food I’d brought. We had a great view of the sunset reflecting off the shiny parts of the buildings nearby. The drugs themselves went smoothly, with a small delay to check the IV insertion, but they determined it was fine. I got another medicine doser applied to my arm to release this evening. Last time, I didn’t even notice the clicks and beeps to let me know it worked! I had to ask Frank to look at it and see if it was empty (it was).

  

Sunset reflecting off of city buildings.                                Funny face!

I joined in on a zoom choir rehearsal on the way home, so I had fun singing and choir folks to entertain me for the ride home! And we stopped at Pressed Cafe for takeout and ate when we got home. Oh, and I applied the gel to my head, and it felt so good!

I also want to talk about my hair. On New Year’s Eve, I noticed that it started to come out in my hand when I swept my bangs out of the way. Then I grabbed some and it just came out. I was hoping it would all just fall out on my pillow and I’d be done with it, but that didn’t happen. The next day, it was falling out on my clothes, and everywhere I went, but there was still plenty. We saw our friend Tara when we went on a First Day of the new year walk at next door Beaver Brook, and she loaned us a buzz cutter. I asked Frank to give me a fun haircut with a lot less hair, just keep my ears. Frank looked at youtube and went to it! Sort of a Mohawk, but my hair didn’t stick up, and line designs on the side. It was fun! But I realized my hair now hurt! I had to make sure I was touching it it in the right hair direction and when I lay my head on the pillow or back of the chair, I had to make sure I sort of approached it like a cat rubbing up against a person, or it hurt. By the end of the week, I asked him to buzz everything as short as it could possibly go and then use his facial electric razor to go shorter. Even with that though, my hairs were hurting, and I realized I had little pimply sores in a lot of places. I asked Frank if shaving his face hurts this much afterwards, and if so, thanked him for doing it all these years! I had trouble putting on hats and laying my head down. Luckily, the gel the oncologist prescribed yesterday worked amazingly well. It helped immediately and took the swelling and redness down pretty soon too.

I also noticed at the cancer treatment center that I was the only one with a bald head. There were a couple people with hats, but it seemed like most people were wearing wigs. A wig at this point would have been really uncomfortable physically, and I felt better with nothing on it when my head hurt, but I also feel emotionally better without wearing anything. I asked Frank the other day if he was getting used to me bald, because I’ve still been surprised when I see myself in the mirror! I like it and feel good bald! I do wonder about the social pressures for people to wear wigs and hats. I hope they are wearing them because they like them, not because people say they should. I’ll keep wearing one when I’m cold outside, because it’s mostly below freezing here!

Frank’s New Year’s Day Mohawky & lines buzz cut.

And now it’s all gone!

My next treatment will be Pembro only at 3 pm on 1/19. Fingers crossed that it will be much shorter, as they don’t schedule a oncology appointment that day, and the IV should take less than an hour, with no preparatory anti-nausea drugs needed.