My Taste Buds Are Back for a Week. Where's the Food?

I saw that on a funny meme (yes, there are funny cancer memes) and today I can really relate to it.  Tomorrow is chemo #3.  So today I'm not only tasting food, but experiencing the energy to do a few chores and take care of some personal errands that I will just feel too crappy to do for who-knows-how-long after tomorrow's poisoning.  Chemo #2 hit harder than  chemo #1. Turns out that's to be expected.  Apparently the effects of the poison are cumulative. 

cu·mu·la·tive

ˈkyo͞omyələdiv,ˈkyo͞omyəˌlādiv/

adjective

adjective: cumulative

1. increasing or increased in quantity, degree, or force by successive additions.

   "the cumulative effect of two years of drought"

   synonyms:

   increasing, accumulative, growing, mounting;

Yep. That about sums it up.  So I'm a little (OK, a LOT) concerned about tomorrow.  Well, mostly the two to three days after when the full wrath of the poisoning tends to descend upon me and linger for days.  Or weeks.  Hopefully I can sleep through it as per usual. 

Anyway, the bottom line is that today and yesterday feel like my own personal Last Supper.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm just going to feel crappy all the way to chemo #4 and beyond. That means about a month of crappiness ahead.  The only upside is that chemo #4 is my last of the super-crappy chemos.  After that I'm to receive 12 weeks of weekly less-crappy chemo.  So I guess all I can do at this point is hold my nose and jump in. 

Gone Today, Hair Tomorrow

Yep. I'm bald. Bald and bitchy. Just don't call me 'cueball.'

So...a week or two ago I noticed my hair coming out in handfuls. Yes, handfuls. So. Many. Handfuls.  It's really amazing how much hair is on one's head. Even on one who believes they don't have a lot of hair. Trust me. You have a lot of hair. Possibly a ton of hair. Or close to it.

So...my helpful daughter volunteered to brush my hair. OH. EM. GEE. Those handfuls became brushfuls. It was crazy. And they just kept on coming. She finally put down the brush and just started raking through my hair with her fingers. Interesting that the longer hairs seemed to all come out first. I guess that makes sense. After all, they're the oldest. She eventually fetched a ziplock gallon bag and we now have a lovely bag of hair in the bathroom cabinet. Weird, you may think. Well...

I had read a story about a chemo patient who, after drying her hair, would shake the towel out the window. She did this repeatedly over some weeks. Several months later, a neighborhood child ran to her holding a sweet little bird's nest, commenting on how soft it was. The chemo patient picked up the nest and realized that it was made almost entirely from her own discarded hair and was, indeed, as soft as could be. Isn't that sweet? I may have told this story in a previous post but I'm much too tired to go back and look. I claim chemo brain! So I figure that, next spring, I'll help the little birdies out.

This is a good time to mention a particular angel in my life. A fellow BC warrior, she apparently had quite the scarf and beanie collection. She offered to send me some, as she said she had 'zillions.' Well, zillions is a big number so I took her up on her generous offer. Let me just say that I am the proud owner of several beautiful scarves of all sizes, colors, and fabrics...some are even pre-tied! And some adorable little beanie hats in a soft bamboo fabric. I seem to have a head covering to go with everything. I'm so blessed.

One Boob Doll

Today I'm one step closer toward achieving the dream of every baby-boomer: to be a rock star! Yeah, baby!

Made it to my drum class ('Principles of Drum Set' or something like that) after missing the last 2 Saturdays. So I've attended sessions 1 & 4. Missed 2 & 3. It was a lot of fun. And I have a lot of practicing to do. The only other student in the class over 8 was not there today. I'm probably going to miss session 5 next week due to chemo recovery/afermath. We'll see. At least I have my trusty drumsticks from Amazon.com with which to practice.

So my daughter is a fan of a band called One Eyed Doll. She really gets my (sick, weird, off-the-wall, gallows) sense of humor. When I told her I was going to start a rock band with my new-found drum playing skills and asked her to guess the name of said band, she needed no prompting. She knew exactly what I was going to say. (See title of this post above). It's really wild when a person who came out of your body thinks the same things you do at the same times. I still have two boobs, btw, for those inquiring minds that need to know. And the name stays, whether I end up with 0 boobs or 3 or 4.

I'm really having a great weekend. I guess one just lives it to the fullest when one knows that the next one may be not-so-rosy. Last night we went out for sushi 🍣with another couple. DELICIOUS! And so fun! The place was noisy as hell,🙉 as always. Usually that bothers me so we go elsewhere but last night I didn't care. It was just fun to be OUT and able to taste FOOD and ENJOY it and not worry about what would happen G.I.-wise later. Maybe that's T.M.I. Have I used enough acronyms here? 😆

I managed to finally file for disability on-line yesterday, after having put off going into the EDD (another acronym) office for WEEKS. Long story short, it started out as unemployment due to lay-off but then the Big C came along and then it dawned on my that I probably should qualify for disability 'cuz who's going to hire me when I need to spend half the work week at doctor appointments? Apparently all I needed to do was open another account or claim or whatever online instead of constantly having my old password not work and waiting (and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting) for the promised-but-never-delivered email with the link to establishing a new password. Idiots. I hope my 49 days aren't up. That's the State's threatened deadline to file such things, I believe. Idiots. The truth is that I just wasn't UP to walking into that office and having to deal with a...with a...a...moron. My apologies to any employees of the great state of California who may be reading this. I'm definitely not talking about you.

That's about it, except for hair and bones. Hair: still here, although I think it's falling out slightly faster than usual. I have a feeling that this coming second round of chemo may leave me a tad follicularly challenged. Something to look forward to! Bones: The possible bone pain as a result of the neupogen injections have NOT materialized. How cool is THAT? I was told to take Claritin daily to offset the bone pain. Well, I've been taking it daily for years so perhaps I was more than ready for neupogen's assault. Or perhaps with my history of osteopenia, osteoporosis (I think), and hip replacements, I'm actually having bone pain but don't realize it. Whatever it is, I'm grateful.

Party tomorrow! I really want to go, whether I'm up to it or not. 😉