So here’s the revised chemo schedule:
November 16th
December 7th
December 28th
January 18th
February 8th
March 1st

These are all on Thursday, although I may try to move it up to a Wednesday. I’ll have two days following chemo that I’ll supposedly feel okay due to an infusion of steroids, then a crash for a couple of days. It would be better to crash on the weekend when there are more people present.
I talked to Lori at Beaumont Health today about doing hydros following chemo. Those are supposed to help the digestive system and stimulate the immune system. I scheduled one for Friday. She said that people tend to do a lot better when they do hydros three times a week. I know that we did them when I had sub-acute thyroiditis and they seemed to help.

I talked to a woman at Trinity Hair who will shave my head for free when I start losing my hair. She says that she has terminal breast cancer (what a way to think of it!) and this is what she’s doing to help other cancer patients. She was in business with her daughters but they are moving to their own hair salon, and it sounds as if there is some sort of rift there. I’m not quite sure what I’ll be walking into, but she sounded nice enough.

Sylvia called to ask who was lined up to take care of me during chemo and I didn’t have an answer. I don’t know what it will be like. I don’t know what I’ll feel like eating, or if I’ll feel like eating. Barbara says just to eat what I feel like eating and don’t adhere to my rather strict dietary rules. It’s all uncharted territory at this point. I’m tapping to keep a positive attitude.

I bought some pink pajamas yesterday that will be soft and warm to wear. I also got a new dusty rose fleece vest. Andrine bought me a bunch of pink pants at the thrift store during a half-off sale. The problem is, they are size 14. I’ve lost a lot of weight since my size 14 days, about 18 pounds, and only 1.5 pounds of that was due to the mastectomy. I suppose there are some compensations to having cancer. You know, God, I did ask to lose weight, but I don’t know if this is the method I had in mind. I’m always amazed at God’s warped sense of humor.

Howard is going to get his cast off tomorrow and we’ll see if he has to be recast. I took him through some tapping on that, over the phone. It’s amazing I hadn’t worked on that issue with him before, but that indicates my level of self-involvement at this point. I intend to reach out more to others. It does me good. It helps me practice EFT and it helps other people to work on their issues. I had a chance to work with one of the women in my support group about her reservations about doing treatment. It really helped me to get in touch with her issues because they were my issues as well. She left feeling a lot lighter and happier. I felt a lot better too.
I just called OHSU and found out that I have to have general anesthetic when I have my port put in tomorrow. This is going to take a lot of tapping. I really dislike general anesthetic. It takes weeks to clear out of my system. I suppose, though, if we’re going to play the Pollyanna Glad Game, I’ll be so out of it from the chemo, I won’t necessarily notice how out of it I’ll be from the anesthetic.

What a disease this is. I’m talking to so many women with it and there are so many stories. Heather called today. She’s all of twenty-seven and has survived a double mastectomy and chemo. She recently developed eye problems from tamoxifen and had to stop taking it. She was informed today that since she still has a lot of estrogen (which is totally normal for someone her age but a bad thing when one has breast cancer) she will have to have an oophorectomy and possibly a hysterectomy. I don’t get it. It seems so unfair, but I suppose this isn’t about fair. I’m not sure what it is about. She is so sweet and to see her go through one more trial is so difficult. I wish I could help in some way.

Tonight is the Transitional Housing Celebration in West Lynn. I’ll be giving a little speech since I was the one who wrote the proposal. I’m going to speak off the cuff, which will be something new for me. I have three minutes on very packed agenda. It’s a little nerve-racking, but it will be fun. The last time I spoke there was at our action on April 27th, before my diagnosis. It's been a long seven months.