The Home Stretch

Chemo is on Tuesday morning.  I go in at 11:30 for some blood tests and to meet with my oncologist, and then they'll put me in the chair.  It'll be a single strong dose through an IV, the actual treatment should take about 30 minutes.  Here are answers, as best I can give them, to the most commonly asked questions:


How are you doing?
Fine.  Frequently fine.  Fine is the most appropriate answer.  Sometimes, in addition to being fine, or instead of being fine, I'm also a little scared and occasionally burst into tears at funny moments.  (Most notably, this happened on my flight home from California...I put my sunglasses on and pulled my hoody up, and then realized I looked like a gay, crying Unabomber). But generally, I really am fine. 


What are you naming your Chemo?

After much consideration, I have decided to name my chemo Jordan Catalano.  For those of you who weren't teenaged girls/gay in the early 90's, JC was the hot, angsty, vaguely bad-boy with a heart of gold love interest of Angela Chase on My So Called Life.  Like most teenaged heart throbs, JC's time has long since passed, but I like the idea of spending a couple of weeks knocked back on the couch with him before he's sent packing for good, so here we are.



Who's going with you?
Once again, Michael is taking some time off of work to get me to and from the hospital.  He had blocked the day on his calendar before I even asked...and when I said, "I didn't want to assume --" he cut me off and said: "ASSUME."  He's one helluva good egg. 



Will you lose your hair?

Shhhhugaaaaahhhhh Plummmmmmm!

I am hoping that Jordan Catalano will not make me lose my hair - but really, we just dunno.  Some people do, some people don't.  Typically, people who do lose their hair find then when it grows back it's thicker and curlier.  If this happens to me, I'm thinking of rocking a Macy Gray style for fall 2012.


Then what happens?
My awesome sister, Colleen is flying in from Chicago on Tuesday morning, so when we get back from the hospital, she'll be here to hang out and watch bad tv with me for the first week.  By the time she goes home, we'll probably have a better idea of how well I'll be tolerating my time with Jordan Catalano.  While she's here we will watch a lot of bad TV, and trash talk Jordan Catalano.


Do you need anything?
The near-constant offers for food, drinks, hanging out, and Jordan Catalano sitting are wonderful and much appreciated -- but for right now, I'm good, and I promise I'll be proactive about asking for help as I need it.  Since we don't really know how I'm going to react to Jordan Catalano (he used to make me kinda tingly and sweaty), it's hard to anticipate right now what I'll need as the next coupla weeks go by.  Owen Ryan and Jeff White have been particularly fastidious about emailing me links to shirtless Olympians and things like that - which is both uplifting, and helps to make Jordan Catalano a little jealous (hot).


And finally...
My hope, and belief, is that my date on Tuesday with Jordan Catalano will be the beginning of the end of this journey.  After Jordan Catalano has left, the chances of a recurrence are less than 7%.  I'm excited to get passed this moment of anticipating what's to come, and instead start focusing on get recovered and well and hugging and thanking so many of you who have helped in big and small ways on the road.  


In the meantime, please high-five the closest person in proximity to you (because high fives are the best juju out there) and try and be kind to all the people you meet, because you never know what might be growing inside their pants (this is one of the many strange lessons I have learned from Leftee and Jordan Catalano).  


MWAH.