Chemo update, cycle two...

Really, so far so good. I actually feel pretty good -- an occasional bit of nausea -- but not at all bad. I'm still kind of a picky eater, but mostly because my sense of smell and taste are more acute.

The best thing, I suppose, is that I survived Thursday night/Friday morning without a seizure/trip in the ambulance etc... like happened last time. I'm also much less groggy than the last time AND I have the ever so lovely CPAP machine.

I am noticing accelerated hair shedding -- so it could be the start of my hair loss... I have a lot of hair, so I can stand to lose some -- but this could only be the beginning.... in the next few days I could really look like a CANCER PATIENT.

I've also started to meet some pretty zippy women who are ahead of me on the breast cancer/chemo plan. I'd love to have us get our treatment times coordinated and have a book club. So far I've met three really neat women -- all who come on Thursdays. If we could all sit together, we'd have a hell of a conversation. One of the challenges is that we are all on different length cycles -- hmmmm....

Finally, I met with the nutritionist during my chemo infusion on Thursday. She had some interesting dos and don'ts. Sadly, my days of sushi are over until I'm done with treatment -- I'm ok with avoiding raw meat, red meat and deli sliced meat -- but I'll really miss sushi... sigh. Otherwise, I'm supposed to eat a lot of protein -- much more than I was already. I'm also supposed to drink a lot of water -- mostly to flush the chemo drugs out of my system more quickly. That is supposed to help significantly with the side effects, which seems to be working for me so far.

Assuming I feel well today, Mom and I will be going to Rochester to see my great aunt "PhilosopherP". She's newly moved into an assisted living place and is worried about me... sigh. She's one of my favorite people in the oldest generation of my family -- and when she sees me doing well, being my old sarcastic self etc -- she'll call the others and let them worry less.

Of course, she or the others in that generation would never call me -- or even Mom if they were worried -- they'd just call one another and worry on the phone. Mom's generation calls mom for updates, sends me stuff and worries -- but doesn't call. Of course, they are also in communication with my cousins -- most of whom are on facebook and send me e-mails, so they get updates as necessary :). Yea -- my family is weird.... but, probably not all that unusual.