Saturday, August 15, 2009
8:55PM
Not Fond of Cancer–Janet’s Journey: Week 2 Update (by Janet)

Editor’s Note: Janet’s first post about her cancer diagnosis and treatment can be found here. Janet is going to keep udating the Colony and the Colony is going to keep sending thoughts, prayers and good juju her way.

Photo by Janet

This week starts my first week going into Boston each day alone. Previously, my friend Megan was going in with me, but she found a job and started today! So on Monday it was just me and Dr. W. I am so much better one on one and we had a nice conversation, first about last week’s bloodwork (looked good, he said) then about his vacation in the Charlottesville, VA area, which I know well. We talked about various wineries in the area and you know, small talk like that just makes the visit seem more personal than a quick in and out. He asked me what I was reading, since I carry a book with me every where I go and right now I have a small purse that I can’t fit a book in. It was “The Book of Salt” by Monique Truong and he mentioned he’d wanted to read that.

Next up was re-hooking up the dreaded chemo bag. For some reason it’s just hard to have that constant reminder hanging on my shoulder, always by my side, M-F. But whatevs, I’ll deal, it’s saving my life after all. My regular chemo nurse was on vacation, so I had a different one, which was fine. She hooked me up quickly and got me out of there before lunch was offered, so sad.

I also met with the Skin Nurse (great job title!) in Chemo, since the new chemo nurse was concerned with the state of my skin from the Tegaderm allergic reaction. She was all OMG and I was all…dude, you should’ve seen it earlier, this is nothing. She decided to treat it with a swabbing of iodine and wants me to get it checked every other day.

Anyway, I really need to pack a sandwich or something, since my appointments keep me there so long. I had some time before my next appointment (1245, every day, radiation), so I went to read my book a bit in the Cancer Center room, staffed by volunteers, and filled with books and coffee and tea and puzzles and oh, free handmade cranes! Then it was off to radiation (the last name of one of the technicians is Hiney, did I tell you? Had a good laugh over that!) and then on to home.

I find I’m a bit more tired these days, especially on Mondays where I have to come home and basically veg on the couch. I’m saving Sunday’s True Blood (an HBO vampire show based on Charlaine Harris’ southern vampire mysteries) to watch on Monday to cheer me up. Also on Monday I met up with my friend Monique for dinner at The Melting Pot…we just had their cheese fondue and chocolate fondue options and man, was it good! Plus it was nice to see Mo (or Transvestite Bait, as I like to call her) again, even if she did drink every last Yuengling she’d brought back for me from PA when she was on vacation earlier in the year. Can you imagine? The nerve!

Tuesday went well, had the radiation treatment, and wandered up to the garden on the roof, just for the cancer patients. OMG, it’s so beautiful, but I didn’t have my camera with me that day. I did have my cell phone and took these shots:

They’re putting up a new hospital building! I love to watch them work from the windows on the 8th floor, where the cancer center is located.

Lovely view of Boston

Wednesday, radiation, and afterwards met with Dr. H, the radiation doc. The tumor is in such a place as not to be able to be viewed, so he’s not sure if the radiation is shrinking it, but we’re going on hope. Leave it to me to have a pesky, hidden tumor! Again, we got a chance to chat (his resident was there, too) and I mentioned I was going to see Adam Sandler’s new movie, Funny People…then said, but he gets diagnosed with cancer and dies (I’m not giving anything away here, trust me) and maybe that wasn’t a movie I should see. They both said, in unison, and with emphasis: “You’re not going to die!” and that really made me laugh…also feel good LOL! I mean, of course I’m going to die at some point, but not from this pesky tumor, so that’s good. I also found out he’s got three kids under 7 and so doesn’t get a chance to go to the movies much, although he wishes he did.

Thursday, radiation, and lucky me, a bandage change since I soaked it in the shower even though I’d covered it with a baggie cut in half and taped it down (there’s a bandage over the needle in my port, since the port goes right into my jugular and they don’t want to chance anything getting right into that vein and killing me-lots of bacteria in water). I overheard a conversation in the waiting room about another cancer patient with not good news at all (their family member was talking on her cell phone, calling, I imagine, friends and family to tell them the news) and I had to get up and move after hearing it for the second time. Unobtrusively, of course, but I have a hard time with things like that…too sensitive, and I need to protect myself, you know?

Friday, hallelujah! I get the radiation and then they take off the bag. They say at some point I’ll miss the bag and to that I say [edited for foul language]! I feel so much lighter and pratically floated up the stairs to leave. Woohoo!

Janet is…a woman, a daughter, a sister, a cousin, twice a wife (third time’s the charm, right?), owned by a shibainunamed Wolf; she’s a photographer; a lover of life, travel, food, books, movies, tattoos, the usual and unusual, and last but not least hopefully a cancer survivor. Happiest with a camera in one hand and Wolf on a leash in the other, she loves exploring her surroundings and sharing what she sees. You can read more of her at her blog Fond of Snape.