Living LaFarge

Used up all my energy organizing Jeremy’s 40th (ahem, 39th) birthday party on Sunday, and then an event I’d also been planning for months was the next day. Before I was diagnosed, I had thought to cut my hair and donate it to a charity that makes wigs for women cancer patients who can’t afford a nice-looking, natural hair wig. I remembered the monstrosity Inga wore, and wanted to help out someone else. I had thought about it, contacted a salon, etc.

Then, suddenly, I was on a schedule, as the docs say I may lose my hair 2 to 2 1/2 weeks from the first chemo (which would be this Friday or so!). So with the help of marketing extraordinaire Terri, we got it all organized, got out a press release, put up a web page, printed flyers, and got the email viral marketing working.

In the end, 8 women cut their hair (actually, one was only 11 years old!) and 2 people dropped off ponytails. And I had a great support team for my cut, which was a bit drastic. But I wanted to get myself and the kids ready for the concept of me having no hair, which frankly seems not to phase them in the least.

Thanks to Crazy Horse Salon, Marketplace Bakery, Vic’s Coffee, and Huckleberry Restaurant for their donations, and especially to Terri, Mona, and Deb!

If you know me, you probably know that I have theories (the crazy part is debatable) for everything. Why my kid wakes up at night, why certain things people say drive me nuts, why people don’t recycle.

For chemo, my theory so far is that the more active I am, the better. This is not to say that I don’t need to rest, in fact, I’m sleeping more than I have in years…10-12 hours at night (usually broken up in chunks, I’m not able to shed my momma sleep patterns yet) and a nap too. But I found that in those first yucky days (chemo’s nausea, at least in the first chemo round, seemed to be concentrated in days 2-5), if I just stayed on the couch, I felt worse. Getting out and walking a mile, then eating a meal, then sleeping, was the best.

My theory was that the poison they put in my veins needed to keep moving through, and if I slowed my metabolism, it stayed wherever it was and wreaked havoc, usually in some part of my digestive tract. But if I kept it going, it was better, although not great. The past few days have been pretty awful, but it makes me appreciate a day like today, where i didn’t need any major anti-nausea medications and am only tired.

So Chemo started yesterday, and this is officially day 2. I go through 6 cycles of 21 days, with pretty little variation. Day 1, chemo. Inflation of expanders, either the day before or day of or day after. Day 2, shot of neulasta, to improve my white blood cell count. Day 10, blood test to check my blood counts, (white and others).

Right now I feel surprisingly good, had a walk and a nap today, took anna to school, cooked with Leah (well, I sat on a stool while she cooked), but otherwise it felt like old times. Leah is my friend from Seattle who taught me everything I know about cooking and mothering, so it feels so perfect to have her here at a time when I’m not able to do much of either. Now I’m typing, she’s felting, and it also feels like old times in her house in Interlake Avenue. But of course it isn’t, I’m married with 2 kids and a serious illness to deal with, she lives 1200 miles away, but for tonight, everything is perfect.

Erika’s getting her first dose of chemotherapy today. Leah flew in from Seattle late last night, and was here in the morning when I woke up. She took Erika to Rose Medical Center. I wish I was there, but I had to hold down the fort a little while. Now Carole’s looking after Evan and Anna, who all seem content right now in the sandbox. Loving all the help. From everyone.

The ‘coin’ was flipped, and we learned the bad news yesterday—she’s getting TAC rather than the gentler TC. This means she’ll likely be getting the port for the chemo doses to avoid chemical burns from the Adriamycin. Exciting, huh? In theory, she would have the port already, but we didn’t know in time to get the port implanted. This because she didn’t do her PET/CT scan until this Monday, in theory because she’d have to raise her arms over her head. Apparently she didn’t need to raise her arms over head during the scan. So we could have done that earlier, gotten the results back earlier, gotten registered for the TAC/TC study earlier, and gotten everything in place. In theory :) But it didn’t happen.

Of course, they insert a port because you can get chemical burns, not because you automatically do. So let’s just hope all goes well.

The other annoying thing is that we can’t get Erika in for her first appointment to fill her implants with saline, so we’ll have to wait three weeks until right before or after the next dose of chemo. That has to be done right when you do the chemo to minimize infection risks. There might be another reason; if so, I forget it.

The other other annoying thing has nothing to do with all this. I’ve been noticing that the garage door hasn’t been closing completely. Last night I pulled it shut. There was an overly satisfying ‘snap’. As Carole noticed this afternoon, I snapped the door’s cable, and now it won’t open. Sweet.

So, how’s your day going?