She receives her treatment at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, so every Thursday (3 weeks on, 1 week off) we head off early in the morning for our day at SCCA.
This round of chemotherapy will be most likely be a bit tougher for her, the odds are she will lose her hair, deal with the nausea and there are various other potential side affects. But, lets not get into that. Since it was day 1 today it went like this:
1. Far too long a drive because of the traffic
2. Blood Draw
3. See Dr. Martins (pronouned Marteenz...more about him later)
4. Meet with Pharmacy Chemo Teach
5. Lag Time (Took her to a movie...we have free tickets!)
6. Infusion Time
Blood Draw goes a little bad and she has to get stuck a couple times as the first tube popped.
Everything is running behind today, but I still don't get time to run to the bathroom before we see the doc. GMa calls him the sexy Brazilian doc, flirts with him incessantly and I could have sworn she was going to take him down on the exam table one time! hahahaha
Since I know all these things I don't know whether to rush off to the bathroom and leave GMa in the room by herself....I don't trust her alone with the doctor should he arrive while I am gone. I opt for a sprint to the restroom and make it back before the doctor. Whew!!! One crisis averted. All goes well with SBD (sexy Brazilian doc.)
We move on to Pharmacy Chemo Teach with Brendan...I was so glad that the kids weren't with me...she batted her eyelashes at poor Brendan every time she asked a question. We had several questions, but the most pertinent for my mom:
May I have a glass of wine or a dirty martini with my chemo?
I wanted to ask today, how many of your chemo patients have asked you that question... Oh, goodness!!! I am guessing the poor guy could count that on one hand.
If she loses her hair, we are searching for a short, sassy, spiky red haired wig!!! You go GMa!!! Ever the model that she used to be..one of her questions today was would she lose her eyelashes too? She is already planning on false eyelashes.
Chemo teach done, I have lots of notes of what to watch for. We have several hours before her infusion so we take a little road trip and go see a movie and do lunch.
Infusion goes well, pretreatment makes her sleepy..and she snores and chats in her sleep, but that's okay I am accustomed to that.
After 13 hours we make it home safe and sound.
Thanks to everybody for all the prayers, comments and texts today. The purpose of the blog is not only to keep you to date on my mom, the infamous GMa...but for you to write to her. Share your day, your thoughts, your funny stories with her....they will help her make it through the rough days and bring sunshine to everyday!
xoxo
Cherie
All I really need is love, but a little CHOCOLATE now and then doesn't hurt!
