2 Down.....4 more to go!

I had my 2nd chemo treatment on Wed (Dec 8), and just recovering from that. It's actually been better than the 1st one in terms of nausea and tiredeness.....but I still don't feel "great" and I've locked myself away in my apartment since then. Today was the first day I went outside since Thursday and what a mistake that was.......It's friggin COLD here today (-12 degrees with windchill of negative thirty-something)!! So I've decided I can live without fresh air! I just crack my door open a lil now and then to let the air flow through my apartment.

A couple people have been curious about what exactly is the process for receiving chemo.....how is it done?? Soooo, I'll give you a rundown.

1) I get to the hospital and go to the "chemo area" where I check-in (give them my card and they give me a buzzer).

2) 1 hour before the chemo I have a million and one (ok about 5) anti-nausea pills to take, so I take those.

3) Then I have lots of time to kill because they always make you wait pretty long, so mummy and I prepare a picnic! This time we took sandwiches to munch on, and grapes, and smoothies :) During this time, there are usually volunteers walking around giving out juice and cookies also, so I definitely take advantage of that!!

4) My volunteer friend, Helen, comes and sits with me to keep me company while I wait! Helen's been through chemo many times, so she's got lots of good advice to give! She's so amazing, and I see her practically every time I'm in the hospital, everywhere I go! (I think she must be cloned!)

5) They finally call me in when they have a spot for me. The area is just filled with chairs of people all hooked up to their various chemo drugs. I get a warmer to put on my arm which helps to open up the veins and make it easier to find to put in the IV. Unfortunately this time, they couldn't find my veins so easily (I think my veins knew what was coming, so they decided to hide!!). I got poked twice because of this, and they had to use a baby needle the second time which resulted in the chemo taking longer!

6) My chemo "cocktail" consists of 3 different drugs (sounds like a fun party don't it??......Happy Hour!!). I get 4 syringes, which are manually pushed into the IV by a nurse, and then they hook up a bag for the last drug, which takes 30 mins to go through the IV.

And that's it! They pull out the IV, send me home, and my one week of feeling yucky begins!

Time for some fun!!! - My new looks

I accepted the fact that my hair would fall out from the chemo........and decided to have some fun with it!! I've always wondered how I would look with short hair, but was always to chicken to try it out. Well now was the perfect chance!

In the beginning, there was long hair:
 

Decided to do a bob to start:

Then I went shorter:

And shorter.........with some funk:

Now, photo shoot time!!!!!:

 

My Wigs:

 


My Hats:

 What do you think of my new looks??? ;)

[Thanks so much Rachelle and Reeva for the haircuts! And thanks to Olga for the lovely pics! You gals are the best!]

Fertility Issues

One of the main issues I have to face is my future fertility. The oncologist let me know right away that one of the chemo drugs I would be given will definitely decrease my chances of having children as it is harmful to the ovaries. Alot of women's periods actually stop while they're on this chemo regiment, and for many of them, it never comes back, pushing them into early menopause.

For the younger women going through this "cancer experience", this is more of an issue than with older women, and for me, it is probably one of my biggest concerns. I don't have any children as yet, but I would definitely love to have one day.

I went to see a fertility doctor to discuss my options, which are as follows:

1) Freeze eggs - This would involve taking some hormone drugs to help stimulate the eggs for "harvest", and then taking out the eggs via a needle after a few weeks. The problem here is that it would've pushed my chemo treatments back because I won't be able to start chemo until the eggs are taken out. And I would risk having the hormone drugs stimulate the cancer cells as well. Also, even if they do freeze the eggs, there is not sure chance that the eggs can later be developed into an actual baby because this is somewhat new territory still, and not quite perfected.

2) Freeze embryos - This is alot more certain than freezing eggs, but would involve getting sperm to fertilize the egg and then freezing the embryo that is developed from that process. Uhhhh....problem......what sperm do I use??? I have only been with my boyfriend for 6 months now, so I think its a bit much to request some of his sperm at this point in the relationship!! (Maybe taking things a little too fast there!!) And the other option is to get sperm from a sperm donor.....sorry, I'm just not comfortable with that idea!! No thanks.

3) Do nothing - Since I am younger and have alot of eggs left, there is a good chance that my periods will resume after I'm done with treatment, and I would still have a chance of having babies. Soooo, this is what I have decided. Just have to pray that it will work out. And I believe what is meant to happen will happen....but fingers crossed still!! :)

Feeling brand new!

I am so thrilled to be feeling myself once again! After the first week of practically drooling on myself all day, I was finally able to get out and about....that's why I haven't even had a chance to post anything all week! The timing couldn't be better, cause it was my boyfriend's birthday on Wed and I had to be there for his birthday dinner!!! I was just so happy to not fall asleep on myself during the dinner!

Since I've been feeling better, I've taken advantage of this, and definitely been keeping busy (in moderation of course)! Went out salsa dancing for the first time in forever, and my arm was fine :) However I declined to dance with anyone I didn't know in fear of them twisting my arm into a pretzel or tugging too hard! Since the surgery my arm has been slowly getting back to normal, but I'm still trying to be careful with it.

Another exciting thing I did was get some pet fishies!! My sweet boyfriend bought me a small tank so that it would give me something to do while I'm stuck inside. We thought about a puppy, but that would probably be a bit too much work for me (I'm very bad with animals). So I went and bought 7 neon tetras on Sunday to put in the tank. Unfortunately, the guy who helped us did not mention that he gave me suicidal fish! Within just a few hours, one fish went crazy and jumped straight out the tank! We put him back in, but by the next day he was a goner:( Two of the others have already gotten themselves stuck in one of the filter holes....luckily I was there to pull them out in time...they just seem a little bruised. These fish are giving me more excitement than I expected! Here's the new addition to my family:

I also did some other exciting things which I will be sharing with you in another post......so stay tuned!!! ;)

Its funny how I appreciate different things in my life these days. Like just being able to stay awake for the whole day. Or waking up and still having hair on my head....that's a good hair day for me! I'm expecting my hair to fall out any day now (they say 2 to 5 weeks after your first treatment....tomorrow will make 2 weeks). I enjoy sleeping as long as I want and not feeling guilty about it. I'm so happy that my mom is able to stay with me for all the time I'm on chemo.....before I would go crazy having her here for so long (love you mummy!! hehe), but now its a blessing! Everytime my boyfriend tells me I'm beautiful/sexy it means so much! It's hard to feel that way sometimes after having the surgery, or during my chemo comas....so to be complimented like that is just soooo great and helps me to keep feeling good about myself! :)

Well its time to put my fishies to bed......ta ta for now!