The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

An ode to Dad and Clint Eastwood....

The Good - Only one chemo treatment left! My friend Laura brought me to chemo #7 and made the treatment fly by. Good food, great conversation, a nice day all in all. Thank you Laura! My sister Susan is going to spend the day with me for chemo #8. I asked the oncologist if I could bring a bottle of champagne to this last chemo appointment. She said, hmmm.... no one's ever asked that before but I don't see why not. As long as we're quiet. We'll have to look for a screw top bottle or stealth cork. Can't wait.

The Bad - I finally received a letter back from the director of patient services at UMass. James and I had both written formal complaints about the surgical nighmare in November, letters written in early January. I feel no satisfaction after receiving this reply. If anything I feel more stressed. They support her fully of course. I'll tuck it away and revisit/rethink after all of my treatment is complete. Right now I need to keep my energy positive.

The Ugly - I don't know if I'd mentioned that I have an exam with oncologist or nurse practitioner prior to every chemo treatment. They'd always been fairly uneventful. However, at chemo #7 my oncologist felt something questionable on the same side as the previous surgery/lumpectomy. She believes its fluid and wants me to see the surgeon to have it aspirated. She mentioned scheduling this appointment with the surgeon who'd performed the lumpectomy and portacath placement. HA. So they've scheduled me with a new surgeon, the director of the breast clinic in fact, this is good. The appointment isn't until mid-April, hmmm, this is bad. I know I should think positively as Dr. E., my oncologist, said it can be quite common to find fluid near the surgical spot. But it's going to weigh heavily on my brain until the appointment is over and the test results are in, back to ugly.

Edited to end on a positive note. I had a nice weekend and I'm feeling fairly well. Lot's of hot flashes and slightly achy but manageable. I was out and about with the kiddos on Saturday running errands including buying flax seed at Trader Joes for aforementioned hot flashes. I had a quiet day around the house yesterday then visits from two sister-in-laws, one brother-in-law, and two nieces (hi Jen & Rachie, love you!) for dinner last night. We had chili which was absolutely perfect (thanks Charlene!). I need spicy foods these days to get rid of the ick-chemo-mouth (technical term as James would say.) It was a good weekend all-in-all.