Wednesday, February 22, 2012

and the party has begun...

Well, I've had surgery... I've "recovered" from losing a prominent part of my body...and now, I've started chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy...such an odd word and such an odd experience to go through. Sitting in that room for 6.5 hours made the entire thing very "real". Yeah, I was scared before being hospitalized, but it lasted a moment. Chemo...this is an entirely different animal and one I'm, quite honestly, terrified of. Imagine sitting in a room with people who look like they've got a foot in the grave already and you're the only one that appears to have any life left. It's very surreal and at times, felt like I was watching it all happen from the outside.

I did my first treatment two days ago, received my Neulastin (helps keep your white blood cell count up) yesterday, and aside from a little bit of queasiness, thought I was doing great. By no stretch of the imagination did I believe that this was going to be a cake walk, but I thought for sure I could handle it.

Then I got in the car tonight to drive home from work. All of a sudden every bone in my body ached and was tender to touch. I called the doctor, to make sure this is normal...usually, my experience has been, they tell you 'oh, that's normal, you'll feel better in a day or so"...not this time. No, instead it was, 'yeah, that's normal and it will probably get worse over the next day or two.'

Meaning, hold on to your hat, lady, cause you ain't seen nothing yet.