Valentine's Day Chemo!

I've always been firmly in the anit-Valentine's day camp... with or without a Valentine to share it with.  Back in my single days, I would "celebrate" V-day with a pot of chili and my best buds (gals and guys) and, to be honest, those years trumped many of the years that I actually had someone to spend it with (with the possible exception of the year I received a homemade "Vogi-bear"!)  It just seems like such a "Hallmark Holiday" and so I find it hard to get all gushy about Feb 14. 

Nonetheless, we got into the holiday spirit and baked up a batch of pink and red Valentine's Day cupcakes to take into chemo with us today.  I figure, if you are going to spend Valentine's Day being pumped full of chemo, you might as well get to enjoy a sweet cupcake while you are there!

Seems like the chemo-mixer was also in the V-day spirit, as my chemo came out covered with heart stickers! 

It was actually one of my best chemo visits to date -- I had a great chat with Pat (a woman I've seen probably a dozen times in the "quiet room", but haven't really had an opportunity to talk with) and it made the time fly.  I didn't even have time to break in the new Kindle that Mike gave me for Valentine's Day (despite our oath to not cave in to the hype and buy each other V-day presents, Mike apparently couldn't help himself... while it's just the base model, I've been really impressed with how light and easy it is to read -- can't believe we held off for so long!)

We traipsed to Philly for my "Young Mets Networking Group" (another month of it being just me and the facilitator, but I have high hopes for getting this group off the ground once and for all)! 

All in all, a pretty perfect Valentine's Day, if you ask me!

Rainbow CMF

Back to chemo.  My counts have rebounded successfully and I passed my exam with flying colors  -- Dr C still can't feel my liver, which is a good, good sign... no cough, no pain... stable weight (well, if I am honest, I might have put on a few pounds with all the yummy food in Mexico!).

We brought back Mexican coffee for Dr C and handmade soaps for all of the nurses.  Apparently, this got me into "the club" with the lovely lady who mixes our chemo... my drugs came out today covered in smiley-face and rainbow stickers.  Somehow, it makes the poison in the bag and syringes seem much more innocuous, doesn't it?  (Though it did cause a bit of a hubub in the chemo room... another lady in the room got jealous of my stickers, pitched a fit and got some stickers too.  Funny how the little things can really make a difference though!)

side effect nightmare

So while we were in Mexico, Mike and I had a good time laughing about the ridiculous cycle of drugs that I'm on.  I'm on drugs to combat the side effects of other drugs that I'm taking... which have their own side effects in turn!

For example, the CMF makes me nauseous and causes diarrhea. 

• For the nausea, they give me Aloxi, which causes constipation
• For the diarrhea, I take Imodium, which causes constipation
• For the constipation, I take Colace and Senekot, which cause diarrhea and nausea
• What the heck!?!

Kind of crazy, right?  So we made up a flow map for all the side effects and remedies... enjoy!