Chemo # 11

Friday, December 5

My appointment is early this morning, eight o'clock.  I am in and all hooked up by eight thirty.  My white blood cell count is good this morning, in the fifteen hundreds, yay!  The extra week off has been good for me.

Steven and I have walked in this morning and I am in a pensive mood, not in the mood for talking or listening.

Carolyn is my nurse today, and since I arrived so early, I get my choice of pods.  They are expecting a busy day, so I am in the Mega Suite, where the rooms are larger than where I usually am.  I choose the one in the corner, which has lots of light.  It is like the penthouse suite of pods here, extra window and floor space.  There are two visitor chairs here, and it is just big enough that I can't toss my trash into the basket from my lounge chair.  This is something I usually have no problem with in the other pods.

I got up late this morning and barely had time to get everything ready before I left, never mind eat breakfast.  It was a chilly walk over, so I am hoping there is hot chocolate mix and something breakfasty to eat in the snack area.  Steven goes to see what is available, while Carolyn and I talk about holiday plans and how we are doing with our shopping and wrapping.  There turns out to be nothing for me in snack land, nothing that would pass for breakfast. 

Steve decides to go to Seven Stars and get me a hot chocolate, with whipped cream.  He also surprises me with a pecan sticky bun and a chocolate croissant.  I take the sticky bun and let him have the croissant.

It is a quite day for us at chemo, I knit, and Steven tells me what has been going on in the world of face book and on the internet.

I am not excited about lunch today.  The thought of the food cart makes me feel a little nauseous.  This is one of those conundrums where the solution to the problem also becomes the problem. I need to eat to keep the nausea away, thinking about the food I am offered to eat makes me feel nauseous.  In the end, I get an egg salad sandwich, and eat it very slowly.

I have forgotten to bring my backpack which contains the pump I need for receiving my infusion over the next few days, as well as my psi bands.  Steve goes home to get them for me while I am eat.  By the time he returns, I have managed to eat my sandwich, but that is the best I can do.  I put on my psi band and get ready for the chemo induced stupor to begin.

I am hooked up to my pump by quarter to two, which means I will finish getting my infusion by quarter to twelve on Sunday.  This will be before I get done at church, so I should remember to call Sandy on Sunday morning.

This evening Allie is in a play called Harvey.  I have been invited to see it with her mother and grandmother.  Steve usually comes with me to her plays, but has a story to cover this evening, so I accept the invitation.

Allie has been telling me she doesn't have a big part in the play, but I have learned from past experience that our definition of importance of parts differs.  It turns out she is on the stage for the whole first scene, part of the background action, but on the stage never the less.  She is also in another entire scene, playing the doctor's wife, which may not be the lead role, but is certainly substantial.  Her humbleness is so sweet.

I have never seen the movie this play is based on, but I enjoy it very much.  I appreciate how quaintly dated it is, and how it is still relevant to today.  It has been fun to watch it with Allie's grandmother, who is an avid theater goer, and hear her opinions about the performance.  Along with Allie's mother, we discus things we liked and disliked about the play and how it was presented.  In the end, we all agree it was well done.  Our little fan club/theater discussion group has had as pleasant a night out as we would have had going to a well known theater.