Chemo #3

I like to write everyday, because I like to read other peoples blogs everyday, and figure I'm not the only one!  But sadly I'm just not always up for it these days.  Or, just about the same percentage of the time, don't have enough time management to get it done everyday ;)  Ryan Clegg and Chris Girardi, you feel my pain, I know.

But thankfully, I'm having a pretty good recovery thusfar!  Chemo #3 was yesterday, and it was quite funny.  A really long day, as far as treatment goes, but hilarious mostly because of the people that we came in contact with.

Here, let me introduce you to some of them :)  Dang it, I don't have pictures of them all (shame on me) but I'll do my best to describe them and their awesome personalities.  And I realized after chatting with some of you, that I don't, or haven't described my experiences in chemo that well, so welcome to my world, every other Thursday!

1. Shawnita.  Or Shawnie for short.  She's the receptionist/scheduler in my oncologists office and she already starts to run the other way when she see's us coming...or really when she sees Chad coming.  He has such an influence on people ;)  Totes still loves us though.  She's got about as much sass as...a person you can think of with tons of sass-my wit is not on point tonight-and probably the biggest heart you can imagine.  And she's always got a great crazy story about men.  She thinks them all kind of crazy and not always worth their weight.

2. Tamara: she's the nurse who usually installs (is that the right term?) my IV for the day.  She's a little standoffish each time I've gone in, and then of course it's my goal to make her warm up!  Well, (brushing my shoulders off) this time I succeeded.  I mentioned I live in Lexington and she told me all about her brother in law who works in Lexington and owns a tattoo shop (do we even have such a thing?) and we bonded.  Mission accomplished :)  Hopefully she remembers me next time.  People frequently forget me after the first time we meet, but I've made the best of it and tell myself I'd be great in the CIA or FBI cause I've got an easily forgettable face.  

3. Phillip-oooh Phillip.  My nurse for the day. Haha, he was a RIOT.  Starting with our agreeing that Halloween is the best holiday and him proceeding to tell me his favorite costume was the year he dressed up as a nurse...are you as confused as I was?  Well, I didn't realize it until further into the story, about the time he had to go to the bathroom to fix his pantyhose...that this was a sexy girly nurse costume.  Oh, well duh Phillip!  It's always more fun to dress as the opposite sex on halloween, wouldn't you agree Ali Jordan?

4. But my favorite funny person yesterday has to be this girl:

Stephanie was one of our very first Young Life girls at West Springfield (sniff, tear) when I lead there.  I definitely know that one of the first clubs was at her house, if not the first, and she agreed, saying, "We did a game with whipped cream because there's still a whipped cream stain on our living room wall."  Ah, can't say I remember the game, but a very knowing feeling came back to me...every YL leader has had it at least once, but usually every week....after club...when we have to apologize to the parents who hosted Club that week for the broken such-and-such, or stained something, or "thanks for letting us use your [insert household object here] but we're gonna have to get you a new one...hahaha oh Young Life parents, you weren't thanked enough!  Never did I get chewed out like I deserved, and on top of that, you let us back another week...or 6!  But you got it...that getting kids to the feet of Jesus, or knee deep in the Gospel, or however you put it, definitely trumps any material object that had the misfortune of getting in the way.

Anyway, Stephanie totes made my Chemo #3, cause she's freakin hilarious.  If you don't know her, stalk her and meet her.  She's an engineering major at UVA if that helps ;)  We haven't seen each other since her graduation, but she's one of those girls that you can catch up with if it's been 3 days, or 3 years.  Thanks for keeping us company yesterday Steph :)  And for your awesomely hilarious stories, of which I'll keep to myself.

Fun fact, I like using (what I deem) unusual phrasing of words when I talk (see last sentence of above paragraph) I like to mix it up-not sure why- maybe it's to make myself seem wiser or something...but I'm starting to think I don't use them correctly.  Just an observation.

So chemo.  Goes a little something like this: (feel free to add free credit report dot com theme music cause I am!)

Get up in the morning, maybe take a shower.  Feeeeeed the kitty.  Jump in the car with Chadwick, pray a little bit, get on the road northbound.  Take 81 to 64 east, then exit 118.  Try and bypass all the traffic (useless endeavor) and get to the parking garage at the Emily Couric Cancer Center.  D33!!  That's our regular parking spot :)  We try and get it every time and when we don't...we slash the tires of whoever is parked there.

Pass the nicest parking attendants...especially the guy who's there just to open the door from the parking garage outside.  What what, UVA?  Nicely done.

Get inside, register and head over to the lab.  Have a nice little rendevous with Tamara (see above) and pray that I've had enough water in the past 24 hours to find a good vein, "little pinch," they always say the same thing, haha, and head up to see my dr!  He's such an awesome guy, really personable, quite unlike a lot of docs I've met in the past...and proceed to have an argument with Chad about what really happened over the past 2 weeks.  Usually in front of the doctor.  Probably why he can charge so much, he also doubles as our marriage counselor.  But he really is great, and quite thorough, spending as much time as I need or he needs to get all the info he wants. 

Then we head to the infusion center.  With floor to ceiling windows on one side of the waiting room, and still the shoddiest cell phone reception in the whole building.  #firstworldproblems. We wait here anywhere from 15-45 minutes to get back and start my chemo.  

Our favorite spot to get is the knitting circle.  It's 8 chairs, 4 on either side of the room with a nurses station in the center.  We love it because it's totally a representation of community and they really try to promote it there.  But we've also gotten the pleasure of a corner room (fancy fancy) with windows on two walls.  (You can see some pics of it here)  Chad and I both agree that it would be awesome to get this room when it's pouring down rain sometime, and only I agree that it would also be awesome to get it during a blizzard!

So chemo usually takes about 3 1/2 to 4 hours.  Or if it was yesterday, 4 hours with an extra 2 hours added onto the beginning for new nurses to get trained, and an IV that only wanted to liberate itself from my arm.  In the end, he won his battle.  New IV to the rescue!  Which is much better than working with one that only halfway works.  Ah, I blame it on my bad-veined arm.  I try and have them switch it up each time, Right arm one time, Left the next.  So far we're Right arm:3, Left arm: 0.  I think I've got a rogue limb with his own agenda.

Anyway, there's usually lunch in there somewhere-or like yesterday, a plate of salad fixings with no dressing (thanks to Chad) haha. 

We chat up whichever nurse has the pleasure of being with us that day, and pass the time reading or hanging out with visitors.  Well, visitor, as Steph has been our first and only! Then we finish up, with the last of the drugs taking the longest (90 minutes-and it stings the whole time-ugh) and get in the car and head back to Lex-Vegas!   I'm quite drugged up at this point-with all the pre-chemo anti-nausea drugs, and benadryl and chemo, obviously.  But then we go home and get post-chemo, anti-nausea drugs...and I pass out. That's what my chemo days look like!  If you've made it this far, hurrah! 

But the coolest, and I do mean the coolest thing yesterday was getting on fb between appointments and seeing, no, experiencing a mass photo bomb of friends from allll over who changed their profile pics, and updated photos of the two of us, and wrote just awesome little diddies and memories on my facebook wall that we shared together.  Haha, I feel like I keep saying it, but you guys, you friends, you family just keep blowing me away with how you love me.  I will write back to everybody, it just might take me a few days.  Thanks for keeping me encouraged!  Y'all are the best.  THE BEST. Thank you.

Now it's time for bed.  The rents are coming tomorrow and there's a Pie Festival in Lexington.  I love small town life.