What better way to wake up on a chemo day than to watch a small town perish in the ash of a massive volcano that everyone very mistakenly thought was dormant? Catching said perishing from the beginning (that never happens!) while drinking coffee and sampling lemon bars you baked the day before.
I've been neglecting my blog. Fortunately, SOMEONE'S been giving it attention--DJ designed the very badass Hodge logo you may have been intimidated by just now. Cheers to Deej, I owe you a drink in a month.
I went to my radiation consultation day before yesterday. I'm seeing the head radiation oncologist at Stonybrook Hospital. For some reason my mom said he was 7 feet tall. He wasn't. Maybe like 6'4''. Anyway, he was really nice. During the visit, my mom was in the room with me, along with my doctor, a nurse, and a young medical student. It was a little awk, because the med student had to be around my age, and we were discussing the lovely intimate details of my medical history in front of him, but I figure you have to learn somehow, eh? I also habitually dole out more personal information than people need to know, so nothing new.
My radiologist explained that there's "favorable" types of Hodgkin's and "unfavorable." Favorable means you can treat the cancer with either chemo OR radiation, but it's not necessary to use both. I have the unfavorable kind, apparently, which just means you need to follow chemo with radiation just to make sure everything is zapped.
Dr. C, my oncologist originally told me I'd need a month after chemo before I could start radiation so my bone marrow could regenerate, but my radiologist, Dr. M, said it was actually fine to start after 3 weeks. This means I finish chemo September 1st, have my port removed sometime during the week of the 12th, go for my radiation "tattooing" procedure the same week, then have my first appointment the week after on the 19th.
I wonder how many times they said "This thing's gonna blow!" during the course of this movie. Update: Google doesn't have the answer for that. That's a first.
I go for radiation five days a week for up to five weeks--Dr. M will determine how long it will actually turn out to be after my long set-up visit. But I calculated it, and if I start the 19th, the latest I can be done is by October 22nd.
You would think that having an actual end date as opposed to "sometime in the fall" would make me ecstatic, and of course I'm happy. But it also set in that this is it. This thing will all be over, and I have to get back to normalcy--get a job, save some money, get a job in the city, move, settle. It's incredibly daunting.
Ok the volcano blew up and I was held captive for about 20 minutes just now. Even if the kids really REALLY loved their grandma, would you drive TOWARDS this? They grew up at the base of a volcano. I'm pretty sure their elementary school education on volcanos was more extensive than mine, and even I knew by their age that maybe doing anything except running away from it wouldn't be advisable.
And when they get there, the grandma goes "What are you two doing here?? :) :)" as if they just showed up to play bingo with her. Um, they're saving you, because you had to be more than stereotypically stubborn and pigheaded. "This mountain's not gonna hurt us, believe me!" as she's covered in volcanic ash, right before molten lava busts through the door of her cabin. Ugh.
Anyway, at the end of my first visit with Dr. M., they all leave, and the med student pokes his head in the door and says "Hey, can I ask you a non-medical related question?" And I'm like, Oh geez. I thought he was gonna say something like "I'm new to the area, and I was just wondering if you knew where a good mexican place to grab lunch was?"
"Sure," I say, a little apprehensively.
"Well, I happened to notice during your exam that you were wearing a really beautiful watch," he said. I looked down at my wrist. Really? "Is it from a store around here?" He asked.
"Oh, thanks," I said, "It's from BCBG, there's one in the mall."
"Oh ok, thank you. I thought I'd ask because my mom would really like it. Sorry to bother you."
A med student who thinks of presents for his mom? Maybe I should've hoped he'd ask about a mexican place for lunch, amiright ladies?
Oh god, they just passed the dog and he jumped into the truck. He's safe y'all. He's got a stupid name, but Scruffy's safe.
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