Thursday, December 04, 2008

Finally!

Agh, finally, I got my period. So I suppose I'll be going in tomorrow for my pre-testing and then I get to start taking the hormone shots (shudder) Saturday (see how I used the passive voice there? I'm still in denial about giving myself injections). Oh joy. However, this probably means I'll have to put off my first chemo treatment from the 19th (when we had it originally scheduled). Unless my eggs start popping right quick. Hm. Well, I'm not going to worry about that too much at the moment. Trying to be zen about it all. Ommmmm. So here's my tentative schedule for the next couple of weeks (how fun!):
Tuesday 12/9 having mediport put in (for those of you wondering 'what's a mediport?' - it's a temporary portal they put in on your unaffected side (the right side, in my case) that they can then put the injections directly into, instead of having to put a new IV in every time you go for chemo. It dumps into the big vein that goes into your heart, so that's a little nerve-wracking. Here's a Wiki article about it, if you want more info). I keep having the word 'heliport' pop in my head, so I get images of little toy helicopters landing on my right clavicle.
Wednesday 12/10 going to a 'look better, feel better' (something like that) class. I think they give you makeup and makeup tips, and hair info.
Thursday 12/11 intro to chemo class. Tour of the infusion facilities, among other things.
Wednesday 12/17 CT scan & heart scan. The CT scan is to check & see if there are any other potential trouble spots - i.e. if the cancer has spread. Fingers crossed that it hasn't. The heart scan is to check out my heart function (oooh, damn you, curly fries & mozzarella sticks - why are you so tasty??) b/c one of the chemo drugs has the unfortunate (but fortunately rare) side effect of inducing congestive heart failure. Which is different from just plain old bad ticker-itis, b/c it's a chronic condition that can be controlled. I think the main difference (could be wrong - I need a dr. to weigh in here) is that CHF is a weakness or damage of the muscle of the heart - whereas we typically think of heart attacks being caused by plaque build-up in the arteries. So I guess that actually lets the cheese fries off the hook! I forgive you, cheese fries. How can I stay mad at you?? Anyways, this is something that probably wouldn't show up for 5-10 years, so I'm having a heart scan to see if my ticker's ok, and to get a baseline for the future. Again - here's hoping it's fine.

Sometime, amongst all these things, over the next 2 weeks, I'll be going in several times for varous visits to have multiple vaginal ultrasounds. Fun, fun. And then I'll go in for the ova extraction, which will involve sleepytime anesthesia. Yawn!

Oh yeah, and I went in for my hair-modeling hairdo. It is wild. I have to say, it's nothing I ever would have picked for myself. But I'm digging it. And I intend to get pix up here sometime soon. So watch this space for that!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

can't wait to see more hair-do piccies! sending you good vibage, girl.