Second Chemo Treatment and Various Other Things

Wednesday, Dec. 6 was my second Chemo treatment. It was another long day from 8:30 a.m. until 3:15 p.m. During the treatment I added two more health care providers to my team, bringing to total now to 21. That is way too many people for me to keep straight, especially since I have never been very good at remembering names. I am starting to see some patterns that are reoccurring during the treatment cycles. For example, the nights immediately following the treatments I get very little sleep, which is one of the side effects. The anti-nausea pills that I have been given are not as effective this time, the nausea has already started and this is only Friday. Well maybe that means it will end quicker. Fingers crossed on that one.

I was feeling a bit at a loss about who to turn to with questions, there are so many who want to give me answers and information, but I have only seen some of them for five or ten minutes and I can’t remember their names. The best solution seemed to be to make an appointment with Renate Bennett, the Nurse Practitioner in North Queens Medical Centre. She was the principal care giver that I went to when I started down this medical journey and she was understanding, supportive and she treated me like a person and she is a familiar face AND I can remember her name. What more recommendation did she need? My appointment was on Thursday, Dec. 7 and that may have been the smartest thing I have done so far to help myself through this. She listened, she answered questions and she asked if I would like to have a monthly meeting with her while this whole mess is going on. She got me a copy of my pathology report and she explained some of the scarier facts about the report. She is a keeper.

I am not ready to share much info about the report at this point, but I will say that the cancer cells that have invaded my body are aggressive and they have been there for a while. Enough said on that.

My hair is getting very thin so when I go out in public I am wearing either a hat or one of my stylish wigs. Frank and I are meeting a very good friend for lunch next week, I wonder if she will recognize me. Well, Frank is just as good-looking as ever, so I guess she will find us okay.

I think this is enough from me for today. But please stay tuned I will be back in the next couple of days with my thoughts on what not to say to someone who says they have cancer. My thoughts only as each of us is different and we all handle things differently and we all expect different things.