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I ordered several hair coverings...scarves, turbans, ...from the American Cancer Society TLC catalog. When the package arrived, I of course, opened up everything and started trying things on. I was modeling my new looks for Jim and he said, "How do women do it? You take this nasty diagnosis and hair loss and turn it into an opportunity for having fun and going shopping. What do men do? ....Go bald?"
Just thought you might be interested to see that I look just fine! (Just for you Mom!) My hairdo is the wig that fooled Jim. I wore it to support group today and got good feedback so guess I shoudn't feel self conscious. I did get a few scarves to wear around home because they are more comfortable AND you should not wear the wig while cooking. Heat will melt it!!
Tomorrow I do my second treatment and Thursday Jim does his second one. So we have some planned leftovers in the fridge and we are READY!
On Day 13 I started losing my hair. It's amazing how fast this happened. One day I wash and curl it like normal, then next I'm getting handfuls of hair out. So this morning I took advantage of a local salon's offer for a complimentary chemo cut. It seemed like kind of a drastic thing to do but now it's over and I'm glad it's done. Feels better.
Based on input from my cancer support group I asked him to do a #2 or 3 buzz cut. Everyone said don't get your head shaved as it could result in tenderness and a rash. I don't think the stylist had done this before so he took directions from me. He was very nice and made it quite painless. The thing is ....they do this in a private room :) I really had a concern about sitting out in the middle of a salon to get it buzzed.
So all is well. Jim started his chemo on Wednesday and is still feeling fine. No nausea, eating well, sleeping good! Keep your fingers crossed for us that we continue to have an easy time with this.
It feels good to feel good! ...and to get a great night's sleep. Yesterday I enjoyed a long breakfast with friend, Vickie, and then we went to Target to scope out hats and scarves. I have a couple of head covering scarves to get started but I can see that keeping my eyes open for good options will be necessary. I bought a long, soft, lovely rayon scarf but I think it is too bulky. I'll take it to another Target to return and check out other options.
We enjoyed our St. Paddy's day corned beef dinner a day early. What an easy meal! Simmer the corned beef for 2 hours; remove and keep warm. Add carrots, new potatoes and cabbage to the juice and cook until tender....maybe 20-30 minutes. We could have eaten the whole pot but managed to save half the corned beef.
It will be helpful for us to have some meals in the freezer for down days. So I'm racking my brain on what large dishes to prepare for planned leftovers. The only trouble is that I need Jim to go along with this plan and not scarf down the entire dinner! But he's working on the taxes now and needs his brain fortified with hearty soul food!
We returned to a long held ritual this morning with a pot of fresh brewed Starbuck's coffee and a musical serenade including Sunday Morning Coffee by Chip Davis. I made up a music playlist of our "new age" genre while Jim cooked breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast. He's discovered a new way to make eggs. He breaks four eggs into a bowl. If they don't break we have fried eggs...dump them in the skillet. If one breaks...scramble 'em! That's an engineer for you.
So it's been a relaxing morning after sleeping in until 10. We needed the extra sleep to recover from the party activities of last night :) Not that I did much but it must take energy to mentally keep up with all the fun and repartee. We enjoyed several innings of an Angels' spring training game that Bryan had recorded. It's fun to watch a game with him....he is one excited fan! Evan provided entertainment with his dancing routines. Wish we had the bandwidth to upload some videos of his "routines"! Laughter really is good medicine and Evan provides that in abundance.
I have to note that we would not be going down this chemo road anyplace else but here, where we have so many family and friends offering support. I don't know how much we'll need but it sure is comforting to have that feeling of security. Renee sent us home with a container of her spaghetti sauce. Now we're cookin!
This medical scenario has become a job. Last week I /we had medical appointments every day. Takes me back to the old days when we worked 5 days, cleaned house on Saturday and tried to relax on Sunday. :)
I haven't mentioned that Jim has been consulting with the medical team at Hoag Hospital and has decided to go ahead with chemo treatments also. Now if you know another couple out there doing chemo together I'd like to know about them. Both our doctors assure us we'll get through it without too much hassle. I'll have to say I'm anxious about having my "rock" doing chemo. Guess I'll have to put on some real tough big girl panties and deal with it!
I'm feeling about 95% normal after 11 days but in the next week will probably start losing hair. OK...I'm ready.
Last night we had the joy of seeing Grandson Zach play Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. Ahhh...he is so good! Lots of natural musical and acting talent. It will be fun to see what course his life/career takes. Hope he continues to do some theater because the family has such a great time being his fan club.
We get more family fun time today celebrating Hilly's 22nd birthday. In addition to great grilling I heard we're having sour cream potato salad and red velvet cake :) Plus I'll bet there will be a little Wii actiivty. Watch out! I'm the bowling queen.
I slept better last night after taking a couple of Excedrin. Seems that will help the muscle and bone pain. The only other major complaint I have is abdominal/gut related and I won't bore you with the gory details. Suffice it to say, now I know how my body reacts to this regimen and I can tackle this problem head on next time around.
This morning I drove to Newport Beach to a "Look Good, Feel Better" seminar sponsored by the American Cancer Society Each of the ladies got a bag full of donated cosmetics and a session on use of cosmetics during chemo. I'm sure a couple of the demonstrator ladies are Mary Kay gals because I know the lingo :)
It was fun and lots of laughs. After the makeup session the leaders demonstrated wigs, scarves and beanies. I haven't shopped for this stuff yet but lucked out this morning. The gal had a wig just about my color and short so I tried it on, everyone said it looked great and I wore it home.
Jim greeted me with a hug and kiss, asked how it went, fixed me a sandwich and we ate lunch, sitting across from each other. No comments on how I looked. When we were done I said, "So what do you think?" He looked at me with a question and I pulled off the wig! What a laugh we had! I told all the ladies at group that he'd never notice and they'll all get a kick out of my story tomorrow.
I'm taking advantage of as many of the seminars at the hospital as I can. If you have cancer...hopefully you are near a good cancer center with all the resources. I go to support group every Tuesday, which is not a pity party but a sharing of ideas, stories, fun stuff and hugs. It's a place to learn a lot and is well moderated and supportive.
So I'm moving down the road. I don't intend to write about every detail of this saga but thought some of you might be interested in one woman's reactions to chemo. Not too bad so far.
Today I finished a small crochet project and picked up the fourth book in the The Outlander series. Got to have stuff at hand to keep my little brain occupied :)
Yesterday and today I've felt a little worse...maybe 70% up to par. Last night my body, bones, muscles were really achy. So I didn't sleep well and am tired today. But I feel like I'm over the hump...day 5...and will now move back to feeling pretty normal.
Last night I made a dish called Deviled Steak that we really love. It's thin strips of round steak, onion, green pepper, green beans, covered with flour, molassas, soy sauce, and tomatoes. I have a special button on the microwave called "sure simmer" that cooks food at about 220 degrees. It is magic! Yummy gravy sauce, tender beef ladled over mashed potatoes. I can't believe how much Jim can eat...three helpings :) Guess it was a success!
So far, so good, on day 3 after chemo. Yesterday I felt fine, went out and did grocery shopping for soup ingredients. Today I feel a tiny bit punky and light headed but basically OK.
I don't usually shop for groceries but we were waiting for the "cable guy" to install a Time Warner cable box and of course he didn't come until midafternoon. This pricey RV park is offering free HD cable to longer term residents so we decided to try it out. Yes...the picture IS beautiful! But it will be a learning curve to find all our fave channels. This deal includes 10 free HBO channels and a few others like Starz.
So the plan is to try this out and if we're happy we'll put our Direct TV via satellite on hiatus for 6 months, saving nearly $500. This new gadget is keeping me busy figuring out all the buttons on the remote and watching way too much TV. I have a book due at the library tomorrow and a little crochet project in the works also. Gee, life is really busy! Good thing for me :)
On January 23 I told you why we moved to Orange, CA to be near doctors and hospitals to deal with health problems. The results of the OncoType DX test came back indicating I would benefit from chemotherapy. I'm in an intermediate group for risk of recurrence in ten years. To me the advantage of chemo was enough that I opted to do it.
I had my first treatment yesterday and it was no big deal. I'm going to the doctors office for treatments in a very nice small room with 3 lounge chairs and TV. Bring a movie and music and 3 hours later...done. We went out for dinner afterwards. One of four treatments completed.
I've been going to a support group (thanks, Beth, for encouraging that) so I've been learning a lot about side effects and ways to stay feeling good. However, I've also learned that there are so many types of breast cancer that we cannot compare our treatments and results. We can just get a sense of what may happen. My doctor assures me that I'll do well and will feel normal most days....well until I lose my hair.
Next week I'll go shopping for a few head coverings. Seems that for most women this is the biggest trauma. I hope I can handle it well. I used to wear wigs to work back in the 70's just for fun and to cover a bad hair day. Now it seems like a big deal!
So we're here for 5-6 months. I can see the BIG A of Angels' Stadium from our site. I'll probably hear the cheering and fireworks and hope to attend as few games. I'm enjoying the perfume from the blooming citrus trees. We've had some of the grapefruit and oranges which are ripening...pretty darn good:) So more later.