Howdy!! Thanks for your comments, etc. Very nice to hear you are enjoying the BLOG. I can’t guarantee that any future writings can trump CHEMO 1, but we can always hope… the kittens will return, individually or as a litter… time will tell…

Here’s a boring, yet informative update:

Well, round 3 of chemo is rolling around in this cancerous wonderland. So far, so good. I feel pretty much the same as week one and two, luckily. I will supposedly continue to have the sensitivity to cold throughout my treatment, but I’m fine with that. I just may have to forgo flipflops for the spring/summer… and gloves, of some sort, may become a popular accessory. You will have to get your own cold beers for 7-10 days after treatments.

I usually meet with my oncologist each week before chemo. This week was no different. She just does a basic check up, let’s me know how my blood work looks. This week she was a woman of few words. I think she is afraid of me. She stated my blood work looked good. My cell counts looked good. Good enough for treatment is all I care about, really.

In two weeks, I’ll go back for round 4. However, before the treatment, I’ll have a CT scan of my abdomen (liver I assume). They will use the scan to compare to past scans from December and January (prior to my diagnosis), to see if the tumors are being effected by the chemo. They will look for them to be shrinking (or at least not growing-by golly).

Supposedly, at or around every fourth treatment there will be a scan similar to this, to watch the “trend” of the cancer. They just want to see that the treatment continues to work, as sometimes things can change and it can become less effective over time.

The most important part of this visit on my part was yet to come. Each time I meet with Dr. Amin, I have a list of questions, which she usually rips through, answering them quite easily. I warned her of my final question this week. I told her it was a very dumb question, to which she replied the classic phrase, “there are no dumb questions”, in her cute Indian accent. I believe she stood corrected.

We had been creating port videos, which involved port characters. Some of these videos are not suitable for the blog obviously. None the less, I needed to know if it was okay that I continue to draw on or around my port with a sharpie (or pen in general), as to avoid toxicity of whatever level.

I warned Dr. Amin again, that it may not be a stupid question, but rather a very idiotic one.  Once I had spewed it all out, she agreed and exclaimed, that it was indeed the “most idiotic question she had ever been asked”… I of course take pride in this.

The good news : YES!!, I can continue to draw on my skin as long as it does not get irritated and NO!!, I can not actually draw on the area of the port that sticks out (the bottle cap area-as I call it). Either way, a win-win. I can adjust, as I have so many other characters to create. It may be sad (to some), that this was my most important question of the week, but I asked a lot of questions last time, so…. yeah, this was a victory to me.

Anywho, after agreeing that I was dumb, Miss Kitty took the liberty of showing Dr. Amin and her assistant one of the port videos… they kind of laughed guiltily… and seemed  a little shocked. They were quite curious about the talking Pet app (my talking PORT-as we call it). It seemed strange because then they both immediately shuffled out of the room strangely, as if not to get any more of US on them… and they were gone… but oh well. Another week, another treatment, and hopefully soon… ANOTHER PORT VIDEO.

ADDED 3/12/15

Oh, I forgot to add that Chemo 3 was somewhat uneventful. The only highlight was Miss Kitty downloading an 11 minute clip from the internet with fart sounds to play under my blanket for NEW visitors. She prefaced their entrance with, “she’s really gassy today, just ignore it, she doesn’t like to talk about it”. The individual did ignore it until I moved the phone out from under me, thinking there’s no way they are falling for this after about 10 minutes… apparently, they were slightly appalled, but maintained their composure. Ha. There is video before the guests arrived, but I’m not sure it will be posted.

Miss Kitty downloaded that little gem while I was in the restroom. I guess it was a little embarrassing for her when the download started playing (quite loudly), in front of a couple of other patients. I walked back into the room where she was red faced and laughing. Needless to say, it was quite amusing for awhile by ourselves. It wasn’t very busy in my pod (chemo room) that day, thank God.

Perhaps I’ll tell you about Mr. Wonders next time… we’ve run into him the last two weeks. Nice guy, we really like his last name…

Cheers!