June 16, 2008
Dear Friends,
In keeping with my Adventure, Amusement Park analogy I am starting this update with a bit of education. This time it is some fun trivia, not detailed stuff about crap!
Among the stronger memories of a vintage Disneyland visit were the lettered
tickets, A through E, which were used for admission to each attraction. When the
park first opened to the public on July 18, 1955, there was a Main Gate
admission price and each ride or attraction cost between 10¢ and 35¢ in
cash.
To address complaints that visitors were being "nickeled and dimed to
death," Disney introduced lettered tickets in October 1955, just three months
after opening day. The "D" tickets were added in the middle of 1956 and the
famous "E" ticket was introduced in June 1959 with the opening of the
Matterhorn, Monorail, and Submarine attractions.
The "E" ticket represented the best and most exciting attractions in
the park and the phrase made its way into popular culture. For example, when the
first American woman was a crewmember on the Space Shuttle was asked to describe
the launch, she called it "a real e-ticket ride."
However, the lettered tickets were phased out around 1982 in favor of
all-inclusive passes which allowed visitors to visit as many attractions as they
wanted to wait in line for. Today, of course, there are millions of people who
were born after the time when these lettered tickets were used and they have
only a dim understanding of what an "E" ticket was
So, chemotherapy for me is the real e-ticket ride! It is a ride that dares you to get on one and then repeat the experience!
The therapy and the side effects of my first cycle were not as bad as I had imagined.
Now down to my (hopefully educational) description of my chemo experience.
The first thing you do is go in and have lots of blood drawn, just to make sure you are healthy enough that day for therapy. I am so very glad I had the power port installed, they just plug into that and take like 5-6 vials of blood! So much better than sticking my arm!
Then you meet with the doctor. Of course, my doctor complimented me on my pink shoes that I wore that morning! I wore my pink and Lucite pumps, just to kick a little extra butt out of the crap!
Then you head for where the chemo is administered. I had the choice of a private room with a bed or out in small clusters of chairs. I opted for the chair option as I’m not sick and don’t need a bed! Besides that, I had the opportunity to visit with others who were receiving their therapy at the same time.
Each chemotherapy ‘cocktail’ is custom blended for each patient, so what I had may be different from others going through treatment at the same time.
First, they started out with some steroids, which help reduce nausea. The wonderful side effect of this is that the next day my face looked as if I had spent the day in the sun!
Then I got the next two drugs, each separately. I don’t remember which was first and which was second (the two drugs to refresh your memory are Adriamycin and Cytoxan)…. I guess I should have taken notes! Anyway, during one of the drugs I was instructed to chew on ice chips to help keep the inside of my mouth from burning. This was extremely hard for me as my dentist told me when I was a teenager that chewing on ice was bad for the enamel on your teeth, so I don’t chew ice! That I regret and am going to overcome as the inside of my mouth was raw for 10 days however the plus side to that is that it is like having brand new taste buds!
Because a potential side effect of the study drug, Avastin, to induce high blood pressure they took my blood pressure before they started the Avastin in the IV. Well, you know me, I had to create some excitement and it took 5 nurses to get my blood pressure. Apparently, it had gone way up from when I checked in and they were not setting the upper value high enough. After all that, I had the last of my ‘cocktail’ and went home.
The anti-nausea drug, Emend, worked, I did not have any nausea with this round of chemo. The biggest side effects I had for that day was an extreme headache and I slept a lot once I got home.
The next day was an excellent day; I really did not feel to bad. Went for my Neulasta shot, which stimulates white blood cell production, that wasn’t very bad either! Next time John, is going to learn how to give me the shot himself, so we will not have to run to the doctors office the day after chemo. I must say he gets a certain ‘glimmer’ in his eye with anticipation of sticking it to me with a needle! He knows how much I dislike needles. For those of you who don’t know me well, I can’t even watch someone get a shot on TV without feeling light headed!
Days 3 and 4… now those were not good days for me. I spent the majority of those days sleeping, thankful I was not nauseated though. The headaches continued, but medication helped with that. Overall not too bad.
Days 5 and 6, were pretty good days for me. I was able to start the day early and work until about 2 pm before needing a rest.
Day 7 started out okay but in the afternoon all my joints just ached! I laid in bed the rest of the day.
Day 8 through today, I feel like my regular self again! Hooray! There is so much to do! And the ride is a ‘fond’ memory!
So very much like that “e ticket” ride, you are anxiously awaiting going on the ride, you take the ride and have some moments when you wonder “oh my gosh, what am I doing?!” You get off and say, that wasn’t so bad, I think I just might do that again!
Lastly, my hair has all ready started to change texture and should begin to fall out in the next week therefore being the proactive person that I am… I am going to go have my head shaved tomorrow. I have it on good authority that it really hurts when it just falls out in the shower, so I am going to beat this side effect to the punch and take the first step. John plans to take before and after pictures, so watch your emails tomorrow!
Thanks once again for all your prayers and good thoughts; they are helping me so much. They give me the courage, the strength and the faith to beat this crap but good!
