10-4, Over and Out

Yesterday, October 4, was my last chemo. It is over, and I am out of there! (Out of the drip salon, anyway. My next visit to the office will be a post-surgical appointment with Dr. P in November.) I marked the occasion by baking a coffee cake for the staff and thanking them for the compassionate and competent care I received during my chemo. I won't miss my weekly visits to the office for labwork, shots, or chemo, but I will miss the people, both the staff and other patients.

When I first began chemo, I was put in a private room. Gloria, the oncology nurse told me she wanted to make sure I could behave on my own before putting me in a room with others. Well, I guess it took seven visits to convince her I could play nicely. My last visit today was in a group room. One of the woman I run into frequently was also getting her treatment. She is bravely battling a recurrence. I also met a new patient, Margeaux, who was on her second visit. She still had a full head of hair, so we discussed the merits of hats versus wigs. Bo patiently read the latest issue of one of his deer hunting magazines while we women shared our stories and compared notes.

I was saddened to hear that one of the patients I bumped into frequently, Paula, passed away today from a rare form of ovarian cancer. When I saw her just two weeks ago, she told me that she was going into palliative care. I brought a card in for her today and was going to ask the staff to address it and mail it for me. I was too late....

I had an appointment with Dr. P while I was there. She is still very confident that the tumor has responded to the point that what is left feels like fibrocystic disease, but time will tell. She said that it will take probably take a couple of weeks following the surgery to get the results back and that is when our next appointment will be scheduled.

I asked Dr. P how long before all traces of the chemo are out of my body. She said it takes about six weeks for most of the residual effects to go away. In three months, it should be a distant memory, and in six months, I am back to "normal". I am already seeing the results of the milder form of chemo, Taxotere. My peach fuzz is evolving into a dark fringe. I have heard all kinds of stories about how the hair comes back in differently following chemo. The good news is that it is not coming in blonde. I know from the experience with the blonde wig that looked far better on Bo than me that I do not have the coloring to be blond. It made me look green actually. I also have three new eyelashes coming in to join the valiant four that never deserted me.

While the hair is returning, however, my brain capacity seems to have been diminishing. I have been experiencing chemo brain a lot lately. My memory is the pits, and I sometimes have difficulty gathering my thoughts and communicating coherently. I am confident the fog will lift, but it is good to know I can use the chemo brain excuse for a few more months. It is such a relief to know that with this treatment, I will be experiencing the side effects of chemo for the very last time. You know, I have welcomed the chemo into my body and have never considered it to be anything other than strong medicine on a targeted mission to destroy the cancer, and I can't help but wonder if that helped me tolerate the chemo as well as I did...

Dr. P and I also discussed reconstructions options. She mentioned a patient who is going to New Orleans for flap surgery that uses tissue from the saddlebag area. (She used the correct anatomical terminology, but I don't recall it and you get the picture anyway.) Now that would kill two birds with one stone. She tried to call Dr. B while I was there to see if this may be an option for me, but he was out of the office today. I really appreciate her willingness to help me track down answers for all of my questions. From the very beginning, she has always given me her full attention and a generous allotment of her time. I believe the relationship with your doctors is critical to the healing process, and I know Dr. P has contributed to mine.

After the visit and chemo, I almost danced out of the office. I was on cloud nine in a way that I haven't felt since this whole experience began back in May. Bo and I took the kids out for dinner to celebrate this milestone in my treatment plan. Life is good.