Thanksgiving Never Ends

The holiday weekend is over, and I’m still so grateful. Since I don’t watch television I’m blissfully unaware of the death tolls surrounding Black Friday.  I saved much money by refraining from shopping. Instead, I stayed home and thoroughly enjoyed my kids for several days. I got such an infusion of all that I have to be grateful for that it’s enough to last until Christmas.

Two of my personal angels came and cooked for me, in my kitchen – and they brought the ingredients. I definitely felt like I’d won a prize. A couple of Laurel’s personal angels came and helped her finish hanging all my artwork. Now I truly do live in a gallery.

I told Laurel I had started this journal post several times and set it aside. I’m not feeling inspired and the writing is boring me. She gave me permission to do a bullet list for this one.

• Today I had a port installed. I think I’ll call it a ‘portal’ instead. It’s the doorway for the chemo superheroes to enter my body and take care of several errors in cell growth that are causing problems.
• Had my last radiation treatment to the thoracic spine yesterday, and said goodbye to the big machine and the sweet radiation techs. I’m told I’ll need a blast to my left leg after I finish chemo, so I’ll bring cupcakes to the techs when I come back.
• I got my ‘chemo education’ session last week, and when I learned the names of the drugs I decided they sound more like comic book characters, so that’s how I’m playing it now.
  • Deltasone is the place these characters were born, in a galaxy far away. Rituxan and Rubex are twin brothers, the oldest in the group. They are the leaders in transforming the growth of the cancer cells.
  • Neosar and Vincasar aren’t related by blood but their ability to work well together was discovered early in their school years.  Neosar is actually a mustard gas derivative, so you might imagine she can be a bit heedless and destructive if left unsupervised. Fortunately, she’s supervised by Vincasar, a derivative of the periwinkle plant (whose flowers are among my favorite colors, hence her participation was decided upon by my good physicians).
  • Bringing up the rear is Neulasta. She stimulates the growth of healthy white blood cells in the bone marrow – an ability that gets trashed by the more boisterous of the heroes above.

The number of drugs entering this story is getting unruly. The addition late this afternoon is a pink liquid (allegedly cherry flavored), to be taken two teaspoons at a time, four times per day. Further, it’s to be taken on an empty stomach, one hour before a meal and two or three hours after a meal.  I’ll have to start this one tomorrow because I first have to build a spreadsheet and set up alarms on my phone that tell me when to take which medicine and when to eat. And I haven’t figured out where the beer fits into the schedule…….

Thank you for seeing me through radiation. I’m told the effects (both good and bad) will continue to develop for several more weeks. Though I haven’t seen much reduction in the pain in my back, it’s possible the radiation will still have that effect. If it doesn’t, there are several alternatives standing by.

Love,
Marcie

Not much November remains…..