Final Round

Monday morning, L* had her final chemo treatment, the 4th of 4.

A lot of mixed feelings: excitement (it’s almost done!), hesitation (still 3 weeks of side effects to come), fear (will the allergic reactions occur? how bad will they be?), tiredness (please let this just be over).

We were running a little behind all day long, so the long day finished at 3:30 pm, (we were up at 5:30 a.m.)

Everyone was REALLY NICE to L* today. After all the tribulations following the last treatment, L* (at the suggestion of her acupuncturist) wrote an email to everyone on her oncology team saying “this was my experience of it all. i was scared. I want to continue treatment.” So while we were waiting to see the Nurse Practitioner, we ran into several of the NP’s and RN’s who had worked with L* (I think the whole Breast Cancer Center has a big staff meeting every Monday morning), and everyone stopped to say “hello” or “I got your LONG email message,” or “you look great this week,” et cetera.

We got the same chemo nurse as last time, Susan, who was also really nice and really GOOD with L*. She got the IV in the first time, she did a guided visualization to get Luz through it. (Previously, L* has listened to the song Frijolero on her headphones while they tried to stick her, but the visualization seemed a better route.)

This week, L* has been very tired and taking lots of naps. Overall, though, she is getting through. She wants to try to go to the Tai Chi class tonight.