Chemo and a cold...

Well.. this week has been a bit of a down week. I went to treatment last Sunday evening. My mom and I made some homemade chicken and stuffing at the jubilee hospitality home. It is so great that we can make things like that when we are far from home. 
This week has been good. I have worked, and gathered things here and there to sell at our yard sale fundraiser for our spotlight youth theatre camp. I think that will be such a success. I have gotten great things so far (and so much stuff I wasnt expecting) and I am very grateful for those who have helped me out so much that way.
I got a bit of a cold this week. It hasn't been very fun dealing with that and the chemo. But besides the stuffy nose, watery eyes and congestion, things havent been too horrible for me. I really am seeming to handle everything quite well I have been told. And I personally think it is because of all the wonderful, loving people out there praying and looking out for me. Thank you so much to you all!
I think I will now go in a bit of a detail about how my whole "treatment Monday's" works... So before I got cancer I always thought when people got chemo treatments they had to like lay through a tunnel while special invisible rays shot them. (I think that is somewhat like radiation... but I dont know that) but chemo is far more different than that. So, for me, I get to the Huntsmen cancer center between about 9:30 and 10 am Monday morning. I say hi to Lacy the receptionist at the desk and wait for the nurses to call me back. Once Jamie calls back for me I go and find a nice soft recliner in the big chemo room in the back (they're super nice chairs) and Jamie comes over and sticks the dragonfly-looking needle into my port (located on my left side of my chest next to my shoulder.) She takes my "labs" where she takes my blood and tests it, and then I get taken to the dr's room and wait there for what seems like a looong time waiting for Dr. Haslem to see me. We mostly have to wait for the results of my blood tests to see where my white blood cells are at (which I am not exactly sure where they are but Dr. Haslem says that he feels good about mine). Finally when he gets in, Dr. Haslem and my mom and I usually just have a hoot of a time chatting it up. He is really such a funny guy. He is about 36 and pretty much all grey hair. very active looking and vibrant. I love seeing him. One of the greatest parts about it is he seems to not worry at all about rushing our appointments with him ever. He acts like you are his only patient when you are meeting with him (this coming from not only me but other patients of his I have talked with). But he also answers any and all questions that we have for him with the utmost confidence. He makes my mom and me feel really good about everything after we meet with him. Him and I seriously just pretty much joke around the whole time thought. Sometimes my mom has to keep us in line... I dont know how often one 20 year old girl could get away with [lightly] kicking their doctor in the shin... funny story! 
but anyways... (;
after I get back to my soft recliner, that is when the fun time starts. They do start my chemo which in total takes about an hour and a half to sit through. They hook me back up to an I.V. drip and we sit there. just sit. while it all drips in. While waiting, I sit and chat it up with all my other cancer patient friends. If you know me well you will know that I am the first person to start up the conversation with just about anyone. So talking with Steve, and Wanda, and Austra, and James and whoever else is around is not a problem at all. Of course I am usually the youngest of the bunch so I really appreciate and listen to what my new friends have to say. Each of their stories is amazing and being able to hear and experience each of those stories with them individually has pretty much made this cancer worth it to me.
So that pretty much wraps it up. After all of that, my mom and I are usually on the road headed back home. We get home around 5 or 6 pm normally and those monday evenings arent too hard for me. I am just pretty tired. The next day, tuesday, is usually pretty good too, it is wednesday and thursday that arent the best for me. I am usually the most tired that day and just not feeling too top notch. Nothing too drastic though. I still go to work and do any other sort of activity that I need to do. Friday and saturday I am almost back to normal except for some soreness in my joint and deep in my bones. but really I say that around some older people and they just say "well welcome to my life just about every day" haha! So I dont try to complain about that one too much. But usually by about now or Sunday I am almost back to normal. I am so grateful that I get one full week to be just about back to my usual old feeling well. I have really come to take advantage of feeling well on a good day. And to think that I get an entire week of feeling good is such a long time in my book. But at the same time it goes by fast. 
And as bitter as it is to know that on that second Sunday I have to travel down to Cedar City and do it all again, it is such a sweet feeling to know that I will have yet another one done and over with. 
So.. that is a day in the life of "treatment Samae" I guess you could call it. I was thinking of documenting these adventures via photo and putting some on here. I think I shall do that next time. 
Have a wonderful week. I know I will!! (: