Je suis fini

Done!
Over!
Completed!
Finished!
The End!

You get the idea. My 5 months of chemotherapy have come to an end. I survived 4 sessions of A/C and 12 sessions of Taxol with flying colors. There are even people at work who I think don't know what I went through. Even my doctors are surprised that I was able to continue to work through the chemo. I guess that is what happens when you are young and healthy. Chemo couldn't completely knock me off my feet. Take that chemo. Now let us hope you did your job because I definitely don't want to do this again -- ever!!!

I tried to come up with a song with lyrics similar to the "Hark the Herald Angels Shout" like my classmates and I used to sing in middle and upper schools after the Christmas Carol program, but nothing good came to mind. Maybe I'll think of something in the middle of night tonight during the steroid induced insomnia that I anticipate.

Oh my blog, I haven't forgotten you

The month of January has passed by quickly. I have topics which I would like to discuss but my energy and enthusiasm levels have been low. The December holidays were not a totally happy time, and consequently my spirits have been low. When my spirits are low, I am less inclined to share my thoughts and comments.

Two weeks ago I started Taxol. So far, Taxol is much easier to withstand than the A/C. Nausea no longer haunts for me days at a time. My physical energy levels are higher. Before I receive the Taxol, due to concerns regarding an allergic-reaction I receive Benadryl intravenously. Whoa! Makes me stupid and sleepy very quickly.

I am also in the process of losing more hair. I found a pile of eyelashes on my laptop. My eyebrows are also due to fall out. I am not looking forward to drawing on my eyebrows. Women who draw them on always look really creepy to me. I have thing about eyebrows, and have for a while. When I lived in Chicago, and rode the bus to work, I would often spy on people's eyebrows. I don't know why. I guess I found eyebrows to be fascinating -- how some people pluck and pluck, and others are keep their's long and shaggy. My plan was to purchase some fake glasses to hide my ever decreasing eyebrows but I haven't yet found any. Maybe I'll see if I can find some cheap glasses at Target over the weekend.

Last Dance with the Red Devil

Yesterday I had my last A/C chemo round. Phew!! Let's hope the recovery time for this round doesn't take as long as the session that I had right before Christmas.

I had nicknamed the Adriamycin the red menace, but I have since learned the nurses at my oncologist's office have already nicknamed it the red devil. Either works for me.

In two weeks, I'll begin my 12 weeks of Taxol.

Christmas Chemo

Tomorrow is round three of A/C chemo. One month down, four to go.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Hair -- the first thing I think of when I hear the word chemo is bald people. Chemo makes people lose their hair. Since being diagnosed with cancer, I have learned that not everyone loses their hair. Some people don't lose their hair towards the end of their treatment. Some people don't lose it at all (and contribute their hair retention to ice packs). In the end, I think, in my all my pure and glowing ignorance of medicine, that the hair loss is dependent upon the drugs and an individual's body's reaction to the drugs.

The drugs that I am currently receiving, Adriamycin and Cytoxin, cause hair loss, or alopecia, as hair loss is medically-referred. Everytime I think of alopecia, I think of Stan Sitwell on "Arrested Development" whose eyebrows kept falling off of his face. With the AC drugs, first I'll begin to lose my hair in patches. Any hair that I don't lose with AC will be gone with when I begin Taxol (in mid-January), including eyebrows and eyelashes.

I am due to lose my hair sometime next week. I am not sure exactly when but it is soon. Yesterday I went to get my hair cut at a salon. My hair was very long, a little past my shoulders; the longest it had been in years. The stylist cut my hair fairly short, and thinned it out a bit. I have a lot of hair -- lots and lots of strands of hair. I'm not looking forward to cleaning up after the clumps as they fall out. I did purchase a silk pillowcase. Supposedly it well help me retain my hair for a little but longer; I don't really see how but am willing to give it a try.