Day Thirty - the white blood cells trip to the infusion suite

Psalm 55:18

 "He will redeem my soul in peace 

from the battle which is against me, 

for they are many who strive with me." 

I slept well last night.  Felt just a bit nauseous when I woke up, but hardly at all.  Ate some crackers.  Then maybe I had a nausea pill, maybe I didn't.  Ate a breakfast of organic raisin bran with sliced  banana.  Annie called and wanted to know if I would like to go on a walk with her somewhere to get coffee or tea.  I said sure.  Then she said she needed to take a shower, which always takes her a long time.  I said not to worry, I had things to do.  I did laundry, and napped just a bit.  She arrived at maybe 11.  Oh, I forgot to mention, Stephane had Emily and Christian.  

We had some lunch first, or at least I did.  I had egg salad on a brown rice cracker, and some fruit.  We then walked over to 15th and Fremont to Starbucks, as I wasn't sure how much energy I would have.  I did fine.  I got Zen iced tea, and a paper, and we did the crossword puzzle, and the jumble.  Annie really liked doing the jumble, so I told her next time I would let her do it all by herself.  I tried to do the sudoku, and I really did poorly.  No mistakes, but little progress.  I hope this isn't chemo brain already.  We got back just in time to head out for my second "infusion suite" appointment.  I dropped Annie off at the LLoyd Center, and then I couldn't get back into traffic for quite a while, the drivers were so inconsiderate.  So I was a bit late getting Riley, and he was rather stressed out about it.  

But I don't think we were really late.  In my mind I thought that this second day visit would be very short, but it was over two hours.  They immediately gave me a white blood cells shot in the arm, and then proceeded to hook me up.    It turned out that they decided to give me more anti-nausea medecine and more steroid and much more water.  I tell you, my body can hardly handle all that liquid.    It's gotten so I need to decided to go to the bathroom before I know I need to go.  And it's not easy dragging a big thing on wheels with you.  I had not brought my bag with stuff to do.  But never fear, there's always a deck of cards in my purse, so we played gin rummy.

Before we got home Sarah and Zac were there cleaning up in the sitting room and the sun room.  That was SOO nice of them.  Zac and Riley dismantled the crib, and we'll set it aside dismantled until Corey moves out in the first part of July.  Then we will make a guest room out of her room, with the crib in it.  And I'll have the sun room as a second quest room, with Mimi's bedroom set as the motif.  Mimi is (was) my adopted grandmother.  I've always felt a bit guilty about being the one who inherited several of her things (the bedroom set with two twin beds, her ancient heater and fan, and a set of afternoon party dishes in amber color).  But in fact I think Mimi always liked me, even if I was seven when she first met me.  She especially liked my cooking, and said I made wonderful pie.

Exodus 15:2-3

"The LORD is my strength and song,
         And He has become my salvation;
         This is my God, and I will praise Him;
         My father's God, and I will extol Him.
"The LORD is a warrior;
         The LORD is His name.

Sarah made a wonderful chicken Greek salad for dinner, and she also made me some muffins with almost no sugar.  She was worried that the guys didn't get enough to eat, but I assured her that I had plenty.  Then after dinner it was very obvious that little Caleb was getting very tired, so they left.  Then Riley and I decided to watch Under the Tuscan Sun, a netflic movie that has been sitting around for weeks.  We only watched half, because I had a bit of a melt down.  Maybe I've been trying to be too even keeled for too long now.  So we went up to bed.

So far my only problem with this chemo thing is having to go to the bathroom too often.  But I go back in two weeks, and then I hear it gets worse and your hair falls out.  Jennifer told me that my hair would get dry soon, and I might as well shave it off sooner than later, but I'm not sure about that yet.  I've ordered five scarves and none have come yet.  Three of the scarves are from TLC, and two of the scarves are Arabic scarves called hajib.  Most of the hajib are made of Poly, but I select cotton, as it's summer.  My daughter Corey will be freaked out to see me in a hajib, but I think it could be very nice.  And unfortunately I am not as beautiful as the model in the American scarf.  C'est la vie.  Tiah made me a lovely chemo cap out of light green bamboo yarn.  I figure it will be very nice worn under my scarves, to give some much needed body.  That was so sweet of her.

1 Corinthians 11:5-7 

But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved.
For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head.  For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man.