Knowledge will set you free, or at least make you feel better!

Hey Gang! I'm sitting here getting my third round of AC. Only one more of this combo to go!!!! Yippee!!!!!!

The Red Nair, as my friend Emilie calls it, finally kicked in after my last treatment and my hair started falling out. We had some fun with it. I took some silly pictures of the funny 'dos I had after pulling out the loose stuff.. I'd put my baseball cap in my lap and the kids would see how fast they could fill it with hair. We're discussing what I'm going to be for Samhain/Halloween: the Borg Queen from Star Trek, the blue chick from Farscape, Dr. Evil (or Pop can be Dr. Evil and I could be Mini Me). If I lose a lot of weight by that time, I could be a Bic roller pen! Hehehe... Connor keeps asking me every other day if it's time to shave my head yet. I told him that he & Shawni can help cut it off when the time comes and he's so excited about that.

(***THIS PART IS TMI. PLEASE DON'T READ BETWEEN THE SQUIGGLES IF YOUR SENSIBILITIES ARE EASILY OFFENDED***)
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It's easier when we keep it fun, but there were some rough times too. Things were particularly rough on Sunday the 17th. Aaron had taken the kids with him to a friends house for a Poker game. No, the kids went to play with the other kids there, not to be part of the stakes! :-P

Anyway, while they were gone. I went to use the bathroom. You can imagine my surprise when I found the entire area "downstairs" was swollen and felt like it was on fire! The area up front burned like hell, felt shredded, and had blisters, while the backside was extremely swollen like I had a bunch of hemorrhoids and was bleeding pretty profusely.

I started to have a panic attack but I tried to keep some sense about me. I didn't call Aaron because he wouldn't know what to do and he was keeping the kids occupied so they wouldn't have to see me panicked like this. I did text some local girlfriends that I know, anyone who had medical knowledge, for help. Jen P just happen to be right down the street from me and she zipped right over. She helped me calm down and we looked some stuff up because she hadn't heard of this happening either. Evidently, this is caused in some cases because of all the chemo toxins leaving the body and that area's tissue being super sensitive. I hadn't seen this mentioned in any of the books I'd read. I would think that this is kind of important information, wouldn't you?

A lot of sites we looked up recommend using a sitz bath with epsom salt, but I don't have one of those. Instead, I managed to find my cleansing bottles from when I had Shawni. (Sometimes it's good to have a touch of pack rat!) I rinsed with water as cold as I could get it out of the tap and it helped with the swelling. The next appointment with Dr. Nagpal, I mentioned what had happened. He seemed kind of surprised and prescribed a cream to help (name of cream to come). It seemed to help ease the pain of the blisters and stopped the bleeding.
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On the 21st, I went to Dr. Gold's office for my checkup. I got to see Jessica again and it was a lot more laid back with her this time. I think the last time she was giving me so much info and I was just so stressed with everything that I was rubbed the wrong way, ya know? She is a bundle of energy though! Wow! So, we were talking after my exam and she asked, since I was losing my hair, when I was going to be getting my wig. I told her that I was making hair pieces because the HealthPlus policy we have does not cover "cranial prosthetics". She got so mad about that! She stood up and said, "That's bullshit!!! Wait right here...." and walked out of the room. She came back with a wig for me. She handed it to me, telling me that it was a display sample that the company never came back for. I asked how much and she said it's nothing and to just bring it back when I was done with it! I put it on and it's so cute. Not my usual style or color, but fashionable! I was ecstatic!

Also, a friend of ours, Edie B, made dinner for us last week: meatloaf with green beans and rice. YUM! She even gave Aaron an extra meatloaf for the freezer for my rough days. As I recently posted similarly on Facebook, everyday I have to reexamine just how lucky and blessed I am. I have family and friends that love me, that I love just as much. I have always been willing to bend over backwards to help my loved ones. The damaged part of me is just amazed that people would be willing to do the same for me.

I planned to post a photo blow-by-blow of my second chemo treatment, but I thought that the above info was more crucial to know. I'll still try to get the photo blog up when I'm feeling better, as well as add some pix to past posts that I'd been meaning to put up.

Love to all!
Nik

*** I wrote the squiggle part, not to be gross, but because I felt it was very important stuff to know. If you are a cancer patient, please don't assume that this is going to happen to you. I just want you to know and be prepared in case it DOES happen. Everyone seems to have different things happen to them on chemo. I heard a gentlemen talking today that he couldn't handle eating Ritz crackers, but he could handle Town House crackers just fine! Dealing with Cancer and chemo can just be weird sometimes.