Tag: Mutant Abilities

Lucky Number Seven

Lucky number seven is in the books. It’s official, I’ve passed the peak and am officially on the downward slope of my chemo treatments. This one was tough. If you’re familiar with Jackie’s story, you know that we won bout the worst lottery you can imagine. If you’re not familiar with her story; it’s hers to tell, not mine. I’ll just say that we got rocked pretty hard. It left us questioning quite a few things and asking God some pointed questions. That’s OK. Our God is one that can withstand scrutiny. At the end of it all, we know that God has a plan. However bad our lottery winnings may seem, it is for a purpose. Granted a purpose and plan that we may not understand or be witting of, it is still for a purpose.

After my infusion was over, Mom and I went out and grabbed a bite of lunch. For something different, we stopped by a nearby mall and hit up the Panda Express at the food court. Gotta admit, they serve the best panda. I was a little … perturbed when I received the following fortune in my fortune cookie.

The strength of your character will come in handy this week.

For realz? I’ve got fat pandas trolling me now? Not cool. I’m still holding out for the “Help! I’m trapped in a fortune cookie factory!” Yeah, not exactly what I wanted walking into this week.

After a break of two infusion sessions, my old friend Oxalplatin popped back in for a visit. Ah, Oxalplatin.

How do I love thee, let me count the ways.
I love thee to the finger tips and the toes
My tingling can reach, when the feeling goes
My hands can ache, when grabbing a drink
or anything that’s cold, I really do think
My throat is a mess, undoubtedly sore
these are the things that make me love you more
I love thee to the level of every effect
Most are annoying, some leave me wrecked
I love thee freely, when you leave me like mush
I shall but love thee better after from my body you are flushed

dot

All apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning for butchering her Sonnet-43. That two hour infusion of Oxalplatin gives me significantly more issues that the other two medicines that I have to deal with. I’m not gonna lie, after a couple of weeks of catching my breath on easy street, I got hit with a rude awakening. All of the old side effects started coming back: cold sensitivity, tingling in my fingers and toes, throat sores, nausea. What can I say but, it was a wonderfully, fun filled weekend.

Slowly but surely the side effects are going away and lessening in their time. I have been checking, no super powers yet. Which is really disappointing at this point in time. What’s the point of going through all of this if there isn’t at least a small chance of shooting flames out of my fingertips, maybe even turning green and doubling my size? I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Pretty sure at this point that it’s not an oncoming train, but you never know.

One Down

Finished my first day of chemotherapy. I’m scheduled for six months of chemo, twice a month. So that leaves me with 11 more treatments. I wanted to share a couple of random thoughts I had in no particular order.

  1. There are a lot of old, sick people there. Not sure where the young, healthy people get chemo, but it’s not here. Maybe I need different insurance.
  2. Aaaaaaah…Kelly Clarkson!
  3. My nurse was decked out like he was working in an Ebola ward, dancing on used needles, while handling my IV bags. My nurse is afraid he might get sick handling the stuff he’s about to stick in my IV and he’s here dressed like he’s fixing a Polonium sandwich for a friend of Vladimir Putin’s. Something isn’t quite right here.
  4. There’s going to be some discomfort when they remove this.
  5. I had a cheese burger for lunch, instead of a deli sandwich. I heard that too much deli meat can cause cancer. Good thing I didn’t spend my formative years working at Subway. Or eating my weight in sub sandwiches. That could have some serious repercussions when I get older.
  6. That was probably the chemo brain typing.
  7. My chemo has three pages full of side effects. Not a single decent super power among them. I’m now susceptible to cold, but I don’t get even a garbage mutant ability like Jubilee to make up for it.
  8. I asked for a drink. I got a room temperature Diet Coke. Forty-five seconds after being shown the stocked fridge of drinks. Warm. Diet. Coke. Because of a side effect from a drug I was getting three hours later.
  9. Nope.
  10. I took a change of clothes, but ended up forgetting my sneakers. Bad news: cowboy boots don’t EXACTLY go with sweatpants. Good news: I really am 6’6″ tall in heels. All these years I was joking after all.
  11. One ice cube in a glass of room temperature water is three too many. Sigh.
  12. I don’t glow in the dark. Not even a little.
  13. I numbered the list of thoughts that were in “no particular order”. The sad part, is that I didn’t realize it until just now.
  14. If I say something inappropriate now, I get to blame it on “Chemo Brain”.
  • Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12 that God allowed him to have a thorn in his flesh. Three times, he prayed that God take it away, and each time God said “naw, its good where it is.” I was thinking that I could use a little smaller thorn in my side. Instead. Maybe, I just need my faith to grow into my thorn.