Thank yous, and chemo, day one

First of all, thank you to everyone who supported the fundraisers at Beverly over the past two days, and to those who staffed the fundraisers! You are all wonderful.

I have another very heartfelt thank you for all those who signed up for activities over the next week at the Lotsa Helping Hands website. You are all making the life of my family so much more easy, and enjoyable for the kids...you have no idea what a difference it makes!

Lastly, my sister Amy and little adorable baby nephew Matthew are on their way back home tomorrow (they've been staying at my parents' house so I said goodbye tonight). Emma is bereft, and I also have that empty feeling I get when either of my sisters starts that journey home. I can't even believe that she came, watched all of my children with her 7 week old baby, and so effectively took my mind off of what was going to happen today...except for when we talked about it. She is a nurse who administers chemotherapy to children, so professionally she is also a very well-equipped support person. Thank you, Amy! I love you so much, and hope I'll be able to help you as much someday (just not in this same situation, of course)!

From what I've heard what happens after this round of chemo will probably be very similar to what happens following the 5 subsequent rounds...so it should be useful and fun to keep track! Putting the IV into my port was not cozy at all, but who would think jamming a large needle into one's chest would be cozy? Luckily it worked for both the infusion AND my blood draw, so that was my only poke of the day. AND the woman who did my blood draw and IV hookup was a person who ADORES Nancy McIntyre (and Nancy likes her a lot, too), so through the whole thing we were just discussing how wonderful Nancy is and pretty soon the poke was done! (Nancy, you are her favorite patient!)

Then I saw my rock star oncologist, and he was lovely, as usual, with lots of information and plenty of jokes. He prescribed my infusion and also all of my anti-nausea drugs, and then I went to my seat and got cozy for the next 3 hours or so. Almost the whole first hour was taken up with the infusion of my anti-nausea medications, and I have some pills to take for the next two days. I didn't have any side effects during the infusion at all (as long as I didn't worry about the feel of the needle), except it did get a little chilly. Bill went to fill my prescriptions and brought back lunch (yum) and my stepmother Nancy came along to keep me company.

The minute I sat down the woman next to me started talking to me - she knew it was my first chemo and she was reassuring me that my hair would come back (I wasn't worried, but it was nice to see her beautiful hair - since she is much older it came back the most beautiful silvery gray and is very short and stunning). She and her friend were adorable and very sweet. After that, I only got through 2 People magazines before it was over! I was chatting with Nancy and a sad 82-year old woman, too, though, and Bill kept handing me sheets with information to read as well. SO MUCH FOR MY FUN TEST BOOKLET! I have the receipt for it, of course.

Afterwards, I felt like I couldn't quite get my thoughts out or I would forget what I was about to say a little...a fellow breast cancer survivor I ran into later in the day said it perfectly - "Do you feel a little spacey?" YES! Of course I had already had some conversations with other moms/friends at Beverly so hopefully they don't fault me for whatever I said that was inappropriate or dumb! But other than that and a feeling like I don't want to eat so much (of course I did, because I am an excellent eater), and just a little tiredness, I'm fine today. We stopped by the bake sale and book fair at Beverly today and picked up Emma (thank you Angela for bringing Emma! She had a great time!), went to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's for juicing/boosting immunity supplies, and came home to a delicious dinner by Laura Curran. We visited with Amy and Matthew and recounted the day, our neighbors stopped by which is always fun...and now I am going to bed.

So that is a good recap...don't feel like you have to read it but if I really am going to be spacey it will be good for me to read and compare next time!