A cute little hat for the future.........

Well, it's the 4am and the beginning of my second day after chemo. I received a shot of Nuelasta yesterday, which they said could prove to be a bit uncomfortable because it makes your body try to mass produce cells in your bone marrow, in an attempt to boost the white blood cell count and platlets. The end result they said could be severe fatigue and muscle aches, but so far all I am experiencing is a bit of disturbed sleep which is mostly attributeable to hot flashes. For those of you who have experienced menopause, you know what I am saying, and given the possibilities, I consider myself one very lucky girl. A little tired but so far so good.

Heidi came over to spend the day with me yesterday, as Tony (her Dad, my husband) had a committment to be at family gathering in preparation of a wedding today. It's a little early yet to say, but we will try to go to the wedding today if my energy level stays up. Anyway, yesterday was good day. Heidi made me some of her famous home made chicken noodle soup, which was soooo yummy. I had made myself some toast earlier in the day, and that didn't sit to good with me, as we had a bit of an incident when we went shopping for flowers at Claussens. Suffice it to say, I will no longer leave the house without some extra shorts etc.... Just glad Heidi was with me as we we actually giggled our fool heads off. As Heidi says........"fun with cancer"............., trust me it's a lot easier than crying, and Heidi took good care of me.

Anyway, as I move into the next weeks they tell me that week 2 will be a time for great care, as by then the chemo will have been in my system long enough to have greatly depleted my white blood cells and platlets. I have to be very careful about being in large groups of people or around anyone who might be sick or have a bug of some nature. Also of course have to extra careful with sanitization, avoiding raw fruits and veggies and just general good hygiene. My friends tend to think I am a little OCD when it comes to cleanliness anyway, so their only worry is that I will be a complete germaphobe when I am done with this whole thing.

While at the hospital we came across a basket of donated hand made hats, and chose a couple for use in the future. So far I am liking the hat a lot better than the wig, but might be a little warm right now. They tell me I'll start losing my hair between week 2 and 3, so have decided that I will simply have my friend Josh shave my head when that begins to happen. No sense walking around with patches of hair, and since he shaves his head too, he'll give me a good old "hiney" which is what my Father used to call it when he shaved my brothers heads when they were little. I think I look cute in the hat though, so things are looking up!

Either way, I believe that I have been more fortunate in my experience than most, and know that in large part it is due to all of the wonderful support and positive input I have received from all of you wonderful people who have taken time to send reiki, healing touch, emails, comments, cards, food, balloons, books, phone calls and your good wishes. It has helped me to keep focused on the positive, and as I have said, I do believe that you can predict your own future, and if you predict the best, that is what you get. Thanks to everyone for keeping me focused on the positive. It's gonna be a good day today!

Hugs and love to everyone,

Shannon