Joan on the Road

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 :)