Cancer and . . . Spa Treatment

Therapy 4.1 is complete.  I started off the week sitting next to a woman there for her first treatment.  She looked about as scared as I felt the first time I walked into the chemo room.  I didn't know which of my stories to tell her to find the balance between
"This is really crummy and the side effects (insert long list of my complications here) are no fun at all, and you'll get through it"
and "It's really not bad - by your second week off you might be feeling more or less back to normal !" [she doesn't even have Bonus Bleomycin on the off-weeks]
and "Every body's different, not to mention our drugs and doses and diagnoses (we do both have ovarian cancer) are totally different, so I can't begin to tell you what it'll be like, but the nurses are really nice and good at their job."
Even though I didn't know what to say, I kinda felt like an old pro at this whole chemo thing, so I showed her how I tie my bandanna.  And I got the best Benedryl Drip Trip Nap since Round 1.

For the more wholly enjoyable part of therapy today, Mom and I went to a foot reflexology place where a friend had given me an hour-long massage.  It was simply wonderful.  I'm used to going places to have people focus on my body, but usually in those places they poke me with needles and put their fingers where I'd rather not have them and measure embarrassing things like my urine and mostly make me feel crummy.  Here this great Chinese woman spent a whole hour focusing just on making my body relax and feel good.  Heck, it would have felt good just to soak my feet in the tub of hot water for an hour.  (Thanks, Betty & Harvey!!)

Also on the Spa Treatment theme, I got a haircut yesterday.  "A haircut?" you ask, incredulous, "Margaret, no offense, but you're Bald as a Ping Pong Ball!"  Well, it's hard to see in the pictures, but I'm not actually that bald.  I have very thin hair that up until yesterday was 1/8" long and, also up until yesterday, I had left my thining sideburns in tact in an effort to preserve the illusion of having hair under my headcovering.  In the past couple weeks, I've decided that this deception was failing entirely, not to mention the out-of-context sideburns giving me a disconcerting Elven aspect when I went bareheaded, which I almost always do at home.  So my friend and constant hairdresser in Tucson, Kristi, came over and got as much hair off with a clippers (no attachment) as she could.  We decided against a razor because my blood is so thin, so there's still a little little stubble, but in my personal opinion, going even balder and loosing the sideburns makes me even cuter than before.  I guess a little bit of arrogance and a very stubborn kind of vanity are good tools to have in one's Living With Cancer Toolbox. 

As I was walking out of the lobby at my oncologist's, I saw an elderly woman in the waiting room in a hospital gown and housecoat and no headcovering.  "We have the same haircut!!" she exclaimed.  She told me how hers was growing back like a stiff, white cotton ball, and I told her I've seen pins that say "Hair by chemotherapy."  I didn't point out that in fact, she had a lot more hair on her head than I do, hers being easily 1/4" long.  That would be splitting hairs, and ours are thin enough already, thank you.


In Exciting Medical News: I got my AFP (tumor marker) count from Friday.  Three weeks ago it was 27.  Now it's 14.  Score another 13 points against Grazelda.
This is good news because it's still above 8, which means I still have cancer and can continue to use it in conversation/plying my mother to rub my feet/general whining.  This is slightly less good news because it's still above 8, which means I still have cancer.  I'll talk to my doctor on Wednesday and get the details, but I think that essentially sets the bar for this round: I need 6 or more points to win.  Loser goes back for overtime chemo cycle(s).  Great pep-talk I guess, but it doesn't feel like there's a whole lot I can do to put more pressure on her besides sit in the chair with the drip in my port.

More Tales From The Drip tomorrow.