April 23, 2005

The week of getting Herceptin only was a nice break.  It felt so good to get dressed up and attend the Komen dinner/dance on the 16 th – my friends Amy Myers, Haley Evans and Joy Hodges did such a great job with the event.  I had a blast and I had really cute shoes – what more could a girl ask for???  They raised over $2,500 and have gotten the gratitude of the Komen Foundation.  Amy said that the Milwaukee Affiliate may be interested in adding the Fox Cities to its market territory.

Lately I have been wearing my black wig and some people have a hard time recognizing me.  I love changing my look all the time!  I am sure that I will be bored once I have only my normal blonde hair color.  Perhaps I will start changing my hair color every year.  Or maybe I will keep a couple of the wigs and wear them when I am bored.  I still haven’t lost my hair for the second time.  And I keep forgetting to ask my oncologist about it.  So maybe I won’t lose it…who knows….

This weekend I am fairly tired, but since chemo is cumulative, I can’t say I am surprised.  It’s a great excuse to lay around and do nothing all day.  I will get full chemo again next week and then I will get Herceptin only the week after that.  I will be done with chemo by early June, then I will get a short break before the radiation starts.  I emailed the vaccine nurse in Pennsylvania to find out how far along they are in filling that vaccine trial that I want to join.  I think I said in a previous update that I need to be done with all my treatments before I can apply to the trial.

I have a consult with a radiation oncologist Monday.  She is not in my health plan, but I am exploring some options right now, because I want to be prepared with the best course of action when the time comes to start the radiation.  

I’m still somewhat nauseous, but I am dealing with it.  DQ strawberry shakes usually do the trick for me.  So the other day I was in Appleton and needed a shake pretty badly.  Both DQ stores were closed to observe a funeral, and I was there 15 minutes before they were due to reopen.  But I was desperate.  So I waved at the guy behind the drive-up window and begged.  I had to offer him five bucks for a small shake since the register wasn’t ready to go.  But I got my shake.

In past updates I have expressed my gratitude for all your thoughts and prayers.  And now I am fortunate enough to have entire church groups supporting my recovery!  My friend Sally Tolly dropped off a beautiful prayer shawl from the First Presbyterian Church in Neenah, and the Contemporary Choir with which I perform at St. Margaret Mary Church gave me a bag of goodies this week including a card about having the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered for my intentions.  I have to admit that throughout my life, other than playing my “gig with the church band,” I haven’t been a dedicated or involved church person.  So these gestures have really impressed upon me how really truly good people are to each other (despite the type of news that the newspapers usually like to report).  Early in my diagnosis, a woman my husband knows just because she works at a coffee shop he frequents, gave him a piece of cloth that her church group prayed over.  She told him to give it to me to help my healing.  How cool is that?   She didn’t even know me!

With the cold weather this weekend, I was talking to John today about how weird it is that I didn’t ski even once this year.  He said that this is a “do-over” year.  He’s right.  I will simply have to do a lot of catching up next year.  So I guess that means that because I had to miss four parties around the holidays last year, that there had better be EIGHT parties during the 2005 holiday season for me to attend :- )

This is a quote that Mary Buchta sent me in part of an email recently.  I liked it. So I am passing it on…although for me it might be a Cosmo rather than a glass of champagne, but the concept still works.  I don't include this quote to be morbid, but to assure you all that I intend to do a lot of catching up next year :- )

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, champagne in one hand, strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO!  What a Ride!' "