I had my 3-month-post-chemo appointment with Dr. Bridges last week. They took blood and tested all the different cell counts. Everything is back in the normal ranges so that was great news and I don't have to see him again for six months.
Also my sweet neighbor cut my hair in her dining room a couple weeks ago and it is like a real haircut and I've gotten lots of compliments! Thank you Leslie!!!
{1} How come everywhere I go... and I mean pretty much EVERYWHERE, there is something about cancer and more often than not breast cancer? It probably always has been this way, but I just didn't really notice before maybe? And in that vein of thought, is it actually beneficial, all these commercial items or does it just desensitize us so we don't even notice? Until you or someone close to you gets cancer that is. I really need to start taking pictures to truly share how often this happens to me. Just recently there was the sparkly pink ribbon key chains at Fred Meyer, the car I followed with a "Fight like a Girl" sticker and another with "Save the ta-tas," and even at the market where we like to buy fruit they had a jar labeled "Breast Cancer Awareness" (or something like that) out for donations. The people with the stickers... I wonder, did that person have cancer? Did their mom or sister or best friend? Please don't buy a "Save the ta-tas" sticker in my honor. Thanks.
{2} When I was at the appointment with Dr. Bridges the nurse say, "So you just had a mammogram." No, I have one scheduled for October. Then Dr. Bridges came in and first thing he said was, "So you just had a mammogram." No! Why did everyone keep asking me this? Then we figured out someone had loaded another patients films into my record so we joked that those were not my boobs.
{3} I was at Hobby Lobby to buy a gift card and the clerk asked who the lucky recipient was so I told her a co-worker. She asked where I worked and I told her the Red Cross blood center. This led to talking about blood donation which is pretty typical. She mentioned she had called the plasma center up the road (not Red Cross) to find out if she could donate but they wouldn't/couldn't tell her. She said she wondered if she could donate after having cancer.
{4} At Claire's soccer practice I was half-participating in a conversation with a couple other moms when one of them asked the other how a mutual friend was doing. The answer was that she only has one more round of chemo and then her surgery. I asked what kind of cancer - invasive ductile carcinoma - oh yeah, I know that one. I was dismayed when I heard her friend's story! She had a mammogram (and probably ultrasound) and the doctor (radiologist) said it was just a cyst... don't worry about it. Five months later she had a large lump and some other breast problems. She went back and the same doctor was the only one available to do a biopsy. Obviously it wasn't just a cyst. It was a triple-negative malignant tumor! How scary is that!!? Apparently she works for the hospital where she was misdiagnosed and has subsequently done her treatment at one of the Cancer Centers of America in Phoenix.
{5} In my mind I still have really short hair because of chemo/cancer. We had a visitor at work from out of town who I haven't seen in a long time and she said, "You cut your hair! It's so cute... blah blah blah..." I kind of hesitated and said, "Thanks, you knew I had to do chemo, right?" She said, yes, of course she did, but it didn't just grow in like that did it? You must have had it cut/styled? It was kind of refreshing to realize that it really is just a cute haircut at this point as opposed to the grow out of a shaved/bald head. I probably should get it cut again. I do like it short, but it kind of feels like it's my "cancer hair" and that makes me want to let it grow for a while... even if I just chop it off again at some point.
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