Come to the Darkside Luke...

Hello everyone! Wow, what a busy day! I am still floating around on Cloud 9 after yesterday's news. The day started out with Chantelle taking me to see my family doc to pick up some forms she filled out for me and to get the stitches out of my port.  By now, I feel like a bit of a pro when it comes to uncomfortable medical procedures. (I've come a long way since I was 4 and jumped back and forth from the front seat to the back seat of the car so my parents couldn't catch me to take me in for an immunization. And then they had to bribe me with a Barbie doll to get me to go in. And then I *MIGHT* have kicked the health nurse right in the old crotchal area. Sometimes I think my mother was a saint.) But I digress, my doctor was surprised to find that the last nurse who bandaged my port put the adhesive DIRECTLY onto the stitches themselves. She also questioned why the radiologist wouldn't just use dissolving stitches, but really - why make things easy? It was a bit of a trick to get the bandage off without ripping them right out. Keep in mind it was a "running stitch" which basically means that it was one suture threaded under the skin in place of 4 or 5 regular stitches. Turns out it didn't feel awesome to have that whole piece pulled out at once. In fact, I might have muttered an expletive that had something to do with fornicating with a mallard.

Then between the three of us, we figured out how to apply the numbing cream to the skin over my port and bandage it so that it would be numb for my blood work, which was the next stop.  But not before Telly got in a few product plugs with my doctor. We headed over to RUH where she had a few appointments and I went to the canser clinic to get blood taken.  I ran into a friend of mine from P.A. who is also a nurse at one of my clinics - she was recently diagnosed with Leukemia and is waging her own canser battle. It was SO good to see her and compare stories and treatments. I was lucky enough to get my favorite phlebotomy nurse Carol (she is so sweet and takes great care of me) and the new port worked like a charm! I didn't feel a thing when she stuck that HUGE needle in my skin. (Little curtsy.) I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to being able to shower whenever I want and not having to wrap my arm in layer upon layer of press & seal! I am also looking forward to having a range of motion that will allow my to get out golfing soon!

My afternoon was spent at the gym working out with Kendra, meeting my good friend Sarah who was in town from Winnipeg for a drink and then heading to the salon to get a trim. When I got there, I said to Dwayne that had I known I would still have my hair at this point, I would have had him dye it a darker color to avoid the root issue. And he said, well, we can do THAT, we just can't do blond highlights because it would be too harsh and damaging. SO...guess what????

I've gone to the dark side!!!! (Thank you Dwayne!)

Dwayne calls it "cinnamon". All I know is the roots and grays are gone and it looks healthy and shiny again. He says we will have to stay on the dark side while I am on chemo, which is kind of funny to me. I have always been so conservative with my hair and afraid to try new things (resistant to change one might say) - but these days I just roll along with change and am quite happy to do it. Funny story - I went to pick up a prescription and my pharmacist, who knows me very well, did a double take when she saw me. I honestly don't think she recognized me at first.

My sister Pam drove in from P.A. tonight so she can go along to chemo with me tomorrow. We went out for a nice dinner, we made fools of ourselves giggling and snorting in front of the waiter over some childish and lewd story I told, ran some errands and then spent the rest of the evening cuddled up with Bailey watching comedy. Overall, it was a fantastic day. 

Tomorrow marks Chemo #6. When this is over, I will officially be at the halfway point of my first stage of treatment.  Oddly enough, now that I KNOW the chemo is working, I am excited for tomorrow and another chance to nuke the little bastards.