Round 9
Originally published at bcvsbc.blogspot.com on 11/20/18
In between surgeries and allergic reactions I had round 9, my third round of targeted chemotherapy, last Friday. What was most exciting about it was that my eyes were dilated making it really hard to see. My mom and the kids were worried I was not going to get to the Oncology Department safely so Brody was my guide. He was so sweet! Brody held my hand and made sure I was with my nurse before he would leave my side (kids aren't allowed in the infusion area). I guess I don't get my eyes dilated that often because I was shocked at how blind I was till my eyes went back to normal.
I was pretty much blind taking that picture, now seeing it I think that I look like I am high. What a mess. Also I was not feeling too peppy here because I had stopped all pain meds. My nurse was freaking out because my blood pressure was high which lead to a lecture on taking care of myself. I had to explain I had just had surgery and then she chilled out a little bit but man she was mad at me!
For those of you keeping up to date on my blog you might remember my bud Josephina. Well she was who I shared a room with during chemo! I was so happy when I saw her that I moved my arms too fast and yelped when I went to hug her. It was pretty funny because then she yelled out and started cussing in Spanish. She was in a very different mental state than three weeks ago and I asked her about it. I guess that her nurse was concerned and had put in a request for her to be sent for a psych evaluation after that appointment. At first she was upset but after meeting with her social worker (all of us diagnosed with cancer at Kaiser are provided one) she realized that she did need to refocus. I told her I was proud of her and that I had left the last appointment so worried about her. Before I left we hugged again and asked the nurses to try to keep our appointments around the same time if they could. Keep her in your prayers if you can.
The last update I need is my hair and then I think we are all caught up on the happenings of my ridiculously dramatic life. Last Friday was also one month since my hair started to grow back. Though I am taking vitamins and eating everything suggested to aid hair growth there has been no chia pet response that I had hoped. Instead it is slowly filling in.
I really should start doing my makeup for these, craparoni I look tore up! But I really don't have the energy right now. Perhaps the pictures in the coming months I will make more of an effort...I'll try. So around my ears you can see that the hair is starting to grow over my ears which is pretty darn exciting! One noticeable difference with the hair coming back is that I have a ton more gray and what isn't gray is significantly darker than my hair before chemo. I think it might actually be black. For now I am not sure if it is going to have the chemo curl but I am happy it is growing at all.
Since hair is growing on my head that means hair has started to sprout up in other places....which I am sure everyone is wondering about. The first place that my hair returned was the damn chin hair that I have to pluck. I swear that was the one hair I hoped chemo would have killed forever!! My leg hair returned this week too which is ironic because I can't shower or bathe yet, so I am going full amazon at this point. As for my armpits I can't lift my arms up high enough yet to look in there but I am not able to feel anything so I think I am in the clear still. But one place I am desperate for the hair to start regrowing is my nose and it has not started! I am so annoyed by that because as the weather is getting colder my nose drips like a leaky faucet. It is disgusting and so embarrassing!