My friends and family are amazing. Truly. I have broken the $1,500 mark in my Avon Walk donations ... fund? Already! I'm truly touched. And kind of awed. When I expressed my astonishment to my friend Margaret, she commented (after making a donation -- hooyah!) that "this is when you reap the benefits of being [me]." HA! As the Brits would say, I'm chuffed.
I'm also feeling better about spending rather a chunk of change on buying new running sneakers (or to continue with the Brit theme, trainers) in preparation for my training walks and, eventually, the big 2 day event in October (although I will be getting a successor pair to these in September, so that I can break them in). I am so grateful to my friend Marci for helping me out with the ins and outs of the mysteries of high tech sneakers. She should know -- she runs the NYC Marathon every year!
And then, today my friend Jackie offered to accompany me to chemo, but I felt guilty because it's basically hours and hours of waiting (an hour of it in an examination room while in a pink mammo gown) so I compromised by hanging out with her afterward for a few hours on her comfy new couch, knitting away and indulging in our joint crush on John Barrowman/Capt. Jack. (More on the knitting and DVDs another day, in a different post).
As for the chemo itself, today's episode was not so bad (although unsurprisingly, having an IV stuck in my wrist did hurt -- a fact which apparently amazes some patients according to today's chemo nurse: well, DUH!) and all of my key blood test results came back within acceptable ranges: red blood cell count, white blood cell count, platelet count, and neutrophil count (a type of white blood cell -- never know there were so many flavors!) So since I "passed" my tests, I got more chemo cocktail.
This is how I know that my chemo visit will never be less than 3 hours at the minimum:
Unfortunately, during today's lunch break, I made the mistake of buying a bottle of Honest Tea with my veggie pizza. Naturally, after waiting until I was starving, they were finally ready with my chemo cocktail, so I walfed down the 'za, threw the (unopened) bottle in my bag, and trotted back to the hospital... only to find that it had leaked about 6 oz. of mildly sweetened tea ALL OVER EVERYTHING in my bag! ARGH! You know, minor things, like my notebook with all of my medical notes from each doctor visit, and my CD player, which I use to listen to audiobooks during chemo.
That player's dead now, by the way, so I am pondering buying another one, since I do want to listen to the end of my Elizabeth George murder mystery, Careless In Red. Well, at least they're cheap these days. I was so peeved that I called the company and vented my displeasure that their UNOPENED bottle of tea leaked and drowned everything in my purse. They offered to send me coupons (why would I want MORE?!) and are sending me a mailer to send them the bottle back so they can figure out why it sucked massive wind like that (my words, not theirs of course).
Actually, I was upset enough that I sniffled a little (probably stress over the chemo and not really the dead CD player, although that did annoy the cr*p out of me) and told them that I was really counting on listening to an audiobook while I was at SLOAN-KETTERING having CHEMOTHERAPY. Pah. (Yes, the man I spoke to felt very guilty.)
Okay, now that I've taken it out on the guilty party, I can go back to RTBT:
And so, on that note, I leave you with this very detailed (7 min!) video on how to make tamago. There are also shorter ones on YouTube, but I found the techno soundtrack on this one amusing, and the meticulousness appealing.
I'm also feeling better about spending rather a chunk of change on buying new running sneakers (or to continue with the Brit theme, trainers) in preparation for my training walks and, eventually, the big 2 day event in October (although I will be getting a successor pair to these in September, so that I can break them in). I am so grateful to my friend Marci for helping me out with the ins and outs of the mysteries of high tech sneakers. She should know -- she runs the NYC Marathon every year!
And then, today my friend Jackie offered to accompany me to chemo, but I felt guilty because it's basically hours and hours of waiting (an hour of it in an examination room while in a pink mammo gown) so I compromised by hanging out with her afterward for a few hours on her comfy new couch, knitting away and indulging in our joint crush on John Barrowman/Capt. Jack. (More on the knitting and DVDs another day, in a different post).
As for the chemo itself, today's episode was not so bad (although unsurprisingly, having an IV stuck in my wrist did hurt -- a fact which apparently amazes some patients according to today's chemo nurse: well, DUH!) and all of my key blood test results came back within acceptable ranges: red blood cell count, white blood cell count, platelet count, and neutrophil count (a type of white blood cell -- never know there were so many flavors!) So since I "passed" my tests, I got more chemo cocktail.This is how I know that my chemo visit will never be less than 3 hours at the minimum:
-- arrive & check in
-- get finger prick blood test (or whatever that teeny one is called: today's went MUCH better than the first time, since I suggested the 4th finger, which has much thinner skin than the index finger)
-- wait for an hour for the medical oncologist to get the blood test results back (usually sitting in a pink patient gown, and hopefully flipping through a trashy magazine from the waiting room)
-- have a short visit with her (5-10 min.)
-- check in at the chemo desk & wait an hour (or two) for the cocktail to be mixed up for me (try to score some food at this point, since it's noonish)
-- gulp down meds (new ones today: Zofran, for nausea, and Decadron, a steroid for the itchy flush I got last time)
-- enjoy immobolization courtesy of the IV drip for 45 - 90 min.
-- get bandaged up and run away!
Unfortunately, during today's lunch break, I made the mistake of buying a bottle of Honest Tea with my veggie pizza. Naturally, after waiting until I was starving, they were finally ready with my chemo cocktail, so I walfed down the 'za, threw the (unopened) bottle in my bag, and trotted back to the hospital... only to find that it had leaked about 6 oz. of mildly sweetened tea ALL OVER EVERYTHING in my bag! ARGH! You know, minor things, like my notebook with all of my medical notes from each doctor visit, and my CD player, which I use to listen to audiobooks during chemo.
That player's dead now, by the way, so I am pondering buying another one, since I do want to listen to the end of my Elizabeth George murder mystery, Careless In Red. Well, at least they're cheap these days. I was so peeved that I called the company and vented my displeasure that their UNOPENED bottle of tea leaked and drowned everything in my purse. They offered to send me coupons (why would I want MORE?!) and are sending me a mailer to send them the bottle back so they can figure out why it sucked massive wind like that (my words, not theirs of course).
Actually, I was upset enough that I sniffled a little (probably stress over the chemo and not really the dead CD player, although that did annoy the cr*p out of me) and told them that I was really counting on listening to an audiobook while I was at SLOAN-KETTERING having CHEMOTHERAPY. Pah. (Yes, the man I spoke to felt very guilty.)
Okay, now that I've taken it out on the guilty party, I can go back to RTBT:
- good health insurance -- have I mentioned today how grateful I am to have it??
- my friend Jackie -- see above
- my friend Marci -- see above
- my friend Margaret -- see above; she also introduced me years ago to tamago (yum!)
- 2 down, 6 to go -- hey, it's better than 7 or 8 more sessions to go!
- date night with my sweetie -- thanks to my various anti-nausea meds, I was able to enjoy a delicious meal (of entirely cooked foods) at Miyagi, mellow little neighborhood joint I like, while he had (sigh) a tray of suski and a big glass of sake. My fried baby octopus, spider roll, iced (UNsweetened) green tea, tamago, and peanut sesame string beans were also not too shabby. :-)
And so, on that note, I leave you with this very detailed (7 min!) video on how to make tamago. There are also shorter ones on YouTube, but I found the techno soundtrack on this one amusing, and the meticulousness appealing.
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