Bye, Bye old bitty Agnes...Hello GI Jane

Hi All,

Sorry I have been completely MIA for several weeks but I am not going to lie...it's been pretty rough over here. My first round of chemo just completely turned me on my head and it is only in the last few days that I have had my wits about me. You name the side effect, I had it. It was almost 2 weeks of nausea, vomiting, sleeping, low blood pressure (as in 70/40), hours of IV fluids daily (they literally gave me a special backpack to carry them in so it is hooked up to the port in my chest at any given moment), a mouth full of ulcers and God knows what else. My body just would not retain the hydration needed to recover so it was a total mess and we just need to march on bc I want to forget it even happened. Moving forward the doctor wants me to receive chemo in his office and then strut across the street (a la the Mummers) to Pennsylvania Hospital where I will reside for a few days so he can keep track of this nonsense and try to get me on the right track as quickly as possible. He is also reducing the dose of Adriamycin/Cisplatin because it was just too much for my system. The next round starts a week from today, so keep your fingers crossed that things go smoothly and I don't feel as though I am on death's doorstep for 2 weeks.  

In other news...my hair is gone and I now look like someone with cancer BUT let me tell you about something magical that happened! Yesterday I felt well enough to take a road trip to NYC so we piled into the car, drove up to my apartment, hung out for a little while and then we had a head shaving party and it was one of the most special nights of my life! About 12 of my close gals came over with wine and champagne and we sang showtunes and shaved my head! How about that for a Sunday night?!?!? I will never be able to articulate how incredibly special it was. They surrounded me with so much love and support and joy and LAUGHTER and I just felt like the luckiest lady on the planet. I'm sure most people don't say that about losing their hair to chemo but man oh man, it was a beautiful night. Nothing short of sacred. It made losing my hair more like a rite of passage than something traumatic and that is just an amazing gift to receive in the midst of this challenging journey. Another HUGE bonus is that my hair was long enough for me to donate to Locks of Love, so some cute little girl with cancer is gonna be rockin' a kick-ass wig made with my tresses! Come on! It feels so amazing to be able to do that. 

So that's the story, morning glory. 

Remember...fingers crossed for treatment #2 on Monday. Send good juju and love and whatever else you can find that's colorful and has glitter in it. 

love, love, love,

ko