Friday, July 16, 2010

Update 7/16/10 Reality Bites

Had my follow up appointment with Dr Fishman before I get chemo next week. Dr was nice as usual, as was the chemo nurse I met who I'll be working with.  The nurse was a lot more down to earth about the treatment though, it sounds like I'm in for a miserable time.

Wednesday, 7/21/10 I get the chemo at 9 am.  Because I only have to get chemo once, I'm getting a much stronger dose than usual.  So the side effects might be significantly worse than for a normal dose.  Still I only have to get this once, people who take the normal doses have to get many, many more treatments than I do.  I know, deep down, that I'm lucky to be in this position, all things considered.  But I walked out of the drs office in a daze, the reality of sitting in a chair Wednesday morning for three hours while toxic chemicals are pumped into my body... well I'm more than a little scared.

It sounds like I have a good chance of losing all my hair, or most of it anyway, after all.  The dr had originally said I could expect thinning, but the nurse who actually sets up the patients told me I was likely to lose enough that I'd want to shave my head.  I'm glad I let my hair go these last 6 or so months, I would feel worse about the hair if I'd never given my head the chance to grow crazy one last time.  Of course my hair will grow back, but I'm not sure I have the patience to let it go this long again.  Hell I might have gray hair after all of this.

After I left the drs around 4:15 pm today, I walked to get Bica from daycare.  Normally I'd have taken a taxi to get to her, especially when it is so hot & humid outside, but the mile or so walk did me some good.  I felt better by the time I got to her.  I felt even better by the time I got her back home, which was another mile or so.  I went back to the office for 30 minutes or so after that, to clean stuff up for the weekend.

I have Wednesday off to get the chemo, and it sounds like I might be taking a few more days off over the course of the next 7-10 days after that.  I hope not too, and I hope to get back to exercising by the start of the following week.  We'll see.

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