Scans Clear!

We could hardly contain ourselves when we heard from that the bone and CT scans were clear!! Praise God! Now the prospect of just doing 4.5 months of chemo & 6 weeks of radiation seems like nothing compared to what it could have been if the cancer had spread to organs, etc. With some perspective, you come to see your situation as a lot more bearable :-)

After meeting with the oncologist, Chinya and I had lunch at a kabob place nearby as we waited to meet with the breast care navigator at the Life With Cancer House that was near the hospital. It's a large and new house that provides resources (books), counseling, classes, etc, for patients and their families. It's close to Fairfax Hospital, but they have some of their support group meetings at Loudoun Hospital as well. Actually, I took Keenan, Bianca and Tarin to the "Curious About Cancer?" support group for 5-12 year olds yesterday at Loudoun. When we got there, we had to wait in the waiting room for about 10 mins, and the girls played with Fancy, a therapy dog who was there with his owner. She comes with him every Thursday to be there for people who come. It's a great idea I think, cos it got the children's minds off of why they were there. The session lasted about an hour and they all came out pleased with the pictures they had drawn (about what changes they had noticed since I got sick) and their answers to questions. It's a 6-week program, and I think they would like to try it again next week. It will be the day I start chemo, so hopefully Kemi or Chinya can take them.

Back to meeting Candace (the breast care navigator) today... She went over questions I had about the mediport, chemo side effects, nutrition, etc. About the mediport, it's a little disc that's inserted below the skin on the upper left side of my chest, into a large vein. (I will have it put in next Wednesday - out-patient surgery under general anesthetic.) She explained how it works - a needle is inserted into it, allowing both infusion of the chemo, and blood withdrawal. She said that is really beneficial cos repeated inserted the chemo through a vein in the arm can lead to nerve damage (if the chemo leaks out of the vein) or damage to the veins. Regarding the side effects, she recommended I take some classes on selecting a wig, and looking nice. (It turned out that after we finished our talk the lady that gives the class on wigs was in the building so I will meet her on Monday at her shop. Seems they like to see you with your hair still on (sounds strange) so they can match your look/hair type with the wig.) One of the points that Candace stressed was that I had to bring chemo into my life and not live as if there is not life beyond it. I shouldn't spend days in bed even if I am tired. I should listen to my body, but I should take walks, spend time with family, visit friends and talk about more than just the treatment. She told me how important it is to drink 8 glasses of water a day to flush the chemicals through my kidneys.

I also have notes from Sheila about chemo and lots to read from the oncologist's office. The nurse told me that a good site would be www.chemocare.org, so I will visit it over the next week as well.

Kumbo took us on a tour of the Pentagon today - he said he he wanted me not to go in to the office and to take a break. It was a good timing cos after all the excitement of getting the news of the scans, I was in no mood to have to go back to my desk and prepare an invoice! It's been challenging though, with all these appointments, and next week will be even tougher cos I will be out nearly all of Tues-Friday, and have reports due. I am torn between wanting to go in to work this weekend, and wanting to spend my last weekend before the treatment just chilling out. It'll just have to be a bit of both...

I thank God for this new day!!