I'm home!

Today's round went smoothly. It took longer this time due to the fact that I had to have my blood drawn and analyzed before they could administer the drugs. My counts were good, so they hooked me up. I thought you would interested to see what it is exactly that is being pumped into my body, so I had Steve take a pic of it all. The red syringes (Yes, there are three and they are BIG) is adriamycin which the nurse has to push slowly into my IV herself. The bag is cytoxan (see how closely the spelling resembles toxic!) and that is dripped slowly by IV.



I do have to tell you that today we entertained the entire chemo room. (You know me, never a dull moment, even in chemo) I had taken the huge stack of get well cards sent from my elementary school to help me pass the time, and we read and shared them out loud. All of the nurses stopped by to read some, and even the woman sitting next to me was laughing. The cards were WONDERFUL. Thank you so much to the teachers at Riverside Elementary and all of the students that took the time to send me get well wishes. Those cards were the best medicine I could have received.








Another "fun" thing that happened today (it's not all bad there) was my nurse, Lisa, decided I needed some bubbles. You know, the wand kind. While I was hooked up, she blew bubbles my way and it sure did put a smile on MY face. I thought you'd also like to see that as bad as chemo sounds, the nurses are fabulous, and they go out of their way to make you feel good. I also saw another patient today bringing the nurses baked goods....UH OH....you know what that means...
I now have a REASON to bake! (We all know that I don't really need a reason, but it sounds good anyway) If you look closely, you can see my trying to pop the bubbles.

I thought I'd also post a pic of Carly hanging out with me. I took one of Steve too, but he told me to delete it...so no Steve. See how happy she is to do nothing with me for three hours! :-) Steve was happy too, I just can't show you happy he was! Rach, look closely at the table next to me and you can see the bear that you sent me. All the nurses got a chuckle from him. :-)


And last but not least, it really is a GREAT day because Carly brought me a present, all the way from Chicago. (B...try not to be too jealous) Some of you might remember my BREAST WEEKEND EVER in Chicago which took place the weekend right before my surgery - that never happened. Well, one of the yummiest things we ate that weekend (and we ate A LOT) were cupcakes from Molly's Bakery. I have been talking about these cupcakes non stop since I had them. Suffice it to say that they are amazing, and Carly brought a box home for me! Here they are in all there chocolaty goodness. Clockwise from top left they are: red velvet w/cream cheese icing, chocolate decadence (choc inside and outside), chocolate turtle w/caramel filling, pumpkin spice w/cream cheese icing, and boston cream pie. Okay, you can stop drooling on the keyboard now. I plan to share them with Carly and Steve, but if I get up again at four in the morning, all bets are off!



xoxo
Joanne (drinking lots of water today to wash the drugs through my system)

Hold the press...last minute addition to today's blog! The mail arrived shortly after I finished and there was another package from school. Inside I found this beautiful ORANGE scarf. I ADORE IT! My dear friend, and fellow fourth grade teacher, Marcia, said that she misses my "Orange-ness" Yes, this IS a made up word, but I know exactly what she's talking about. Several years ago we had a guest speaker come to a staff meeting and we all took personality tests that put us into color groups based on our personality. The color groups are blue, green, gold, and orange. It will not surprise anyone that I was the only orange in the entire school. lol
Let's just say that orange people are "outside the box thinkers." Being orange has gotten me into trouble sometimes (Bill, I'm still really sorry about cutting the electrical wires in my light fixture causing all the lights to go out) but mostly I have fun thinking differently than everyone else.
Hence, Marcia missing my orange-ness, and her sending me an orange scarf. You could say that it is my signature color. (much better than pink) I'm even including a pic of my orange crocs that I slipped on to wear with my new scarf. Enjoy and think orange.