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Poster Child for chemo and freak of nature

I made the comment to my oncologist last week, during my chemo infusion, that I could be a poster child for chemo. 
"You pretty much are," she said.

I have thus far been sailing through chemo, albeit like a sailboat stuck out in the middle of Lake Michigan when the winds die and it's not moving for three to four days. Because my primary side effect has been extreme fatigue for 3-4 days post chemo. Last Saturday, 2 days post chemo, I took my shower and got dressed and announced to John that I now needed a nap - that kind of fatigue. 

 And being a woman who has dealt with the fatigue of MS, I thought this chemo kind would be familiar and similar to the exhaustion I feel on a hot summer day where retrieving the mail (our mailbox is at the end of our driveway) while riding my scooter to get it feels like I've run a 5K. That kind of fatigue. This is the kind that makes it difficult to even get up, needing a nap after getting out of bed. Well that might be a little dramatic, even for me, but you get my drift. Movement equals a nap.

 But that's doable. I have arranged my schedule to hold those days sacred to care for myself and rest. My work schedule consists of two days and four WW Workshops,prep and paperwork in small manageable intervals.

 I have no nausea. And that could be because I'm taking the meds to prevent it as my Nurse Cratchit (John Piggins) keeps me on schedule!

 ******

 Now, here's an embarrassing tidbit. I still have some hair.

 "Why," you query would that be an embarrassment?

 Because, in getting prepared for what I was assured to be a given side-effect of one of my nastier chemo drugs, I had John shave my head. And I'm wearing scarves and hats when out and about, but I still have patches of hair!! There are bald spots, but I'm not (as I was told to expect) a cue ball after three infusions.

 When I shared this with the Nurse Practitioner at the high risk breast cancer center, she said (rather animatedly) "WHAT????" To which I responded, that's weird right and she agreed saying that she wasn't quite sure she had ever had a patient not lose their hair after this form of chemo.

 "I'm just a freak of nature, I guess," I said.
She laughed and said, "you are indeed!" 

 I'm hoping that's a good kind of freak of nature!



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