The Insult (post 3 of 3)

Tomorrow I head into the clinic for treatment #5. I will be receiving a new chemotherapy drug, along with the drug Herceptin. This will last for 4 treatments of the two drugs together, then every three weeks for around a year, I will be receiving only the Herceptin.

In order to prepare for tomorrow, I had to start taking medication today. The medication has steroids in it so I was hungry ALL day and a little wired. Well still kind of am and it’s nearly 1030pm. The side effects from this new chemo are going to be a little different than the last – less nausea, but more muscle and bone aches. Again, everyone tolerates these treatments differently, so who knows what will happen.

I saw the GPO last week and she was explaining a bit about the drugs to me. English is not her native language, but she is very clear in the things she explains to me. I always love listening to people who have learned English later in life, but still are great speakers. The words they choose to use are often more eloquent, formal, and a lot different than a lot of the slang that is typically heard.

Here is the great way she was explaining the ‘stacking’ effect that happens when your body receives multiple chemotherapy treatments. She told me that the side-effects are being stacked inside my body…it remembers and the effects are building up. Then she said the best line I have heard in a while: “The chemotherapy has insulted your body. While the chemo is gone out of your system for now, your body remembers the insult”.

Cayley and I smiled and told her that was the perfect way to explain it. We still talked about it over the weekend and every joke had something to do with being “insulted”.

So tomorrow my body will go get insulted again, but it’s just going to have to get over it…I have too many things to do and people to hang out with to be pouty because I was ‘insulted’.

Speaking of hanging out with people, I was really really lucky this week to be able to see a few groups of friends from back in the day. In one group, I was able to see friends from the Southern California area and meet their adorable new baby. In the same group my dear dear friends from China arrived with their little one in tow. On the basketball side of things, I was able to reconnect with an old teammate and roommate and meet her little girl. All these kids were freakin' cute and so adorable. And it was just awesome to see my friends and how their lives have grown and changed in the past year.

Finally, I got to hang out with a bunch of my old teammates at a fabulous wedding on the weekend. We laughed a lot and it felt great to just hang with the old crew and smile so so much.

I feel really lucky that I felt so great during all these great visits. For all of them, I had not laughed that hard or smiled so much in a long time. So thank you. :)