No Ice Cream!??

If the cancer doesn't kill me, the no ice cream quite possibly could!  

I am scheduled to go in for surgery Wednesday for them to put my port-a-cath in my chest for them to administer the chemo.  It is small and will be under the neck line of my shirt, however my surgeon likes to go via the vein in the neck, so I will have a black wire going down my neck under the skin that will more than likely be visible...good thing I have grown out my hair compared to how short I had it when we lived in Georgia.

Then my first day for chemo is Monday May 13th.  Before surgery my oncologist said if I had to do chemo it would be a piece of cake...after surgery when she had to actually go over everything, I quickly realized it is NOT going to be a piece of cake.  However, compared to some chemo/cancer treatments it is relativity easy...easier for a doctor to say than me, who is actually going to have to go through it.

A lot of friends and family have asked all kinds of questions of what it will entail and more importantly will I lose my hair...the 2 drugs they are giving me will not make my hair fall out thank goodness...but here are the side effects I WILL have to endure -

* metal taste during administration, worse as the treatments continue
* compromised immune system...this is getting me released from teaching Primary!
* tingling in the hands and feet.  They said it is a similar feeling to when your foot falls asleep, it just doesn't go away for awhile...up to 14 days...I have treatments every 14 days!
* I will be VERY sensitive to the cold.  She said it will physically hurt my hand to hold a glass of ice water.  If I drink/eat anything colder than room temperature it will cause my throat to constrict, not enough that it becomes dangerous, but they say it is scary the first few times.  So no ice cream or diet coke...unless I drink it room temperature and that is just nasty!  No glass of milk with warm chocolate chip cookies. etc.  She said to make sure I have gloves on if I have to take something out of the freezer/fridge cause it will hurt to touch it.  I am lucky that it is summer time because anything that isn't covered up/exposed when I go outside in the cold weather will hurt.  I have 6 months of chemo, so the last few months I will have to deal with it, but not in the beginning.  However, even the air conditioner is going to be rough, especially in the car when it blows right on you...Rick isn't too excited about this one!

Unfortunately, the tingling hands/feet and the sensitivity to the cold can last up to a year after I finish chemo. So it isn't as pleasant as my oncologist made it out to be, but it could be A LOT worse!  I go every other Monday for 6 months and it will take 4-5 hours each time I go.  Then before I leave they will hook a pump to my chest that continues to administer medicine for another 42 hours and I will go on Wednesdays to have that taken off. Blah, it makes me grouchy just to think about the time commitment for the next 6 months.

Thanks again for everybody's concerns, words of encouragement, fasting/prayers etc. it means a lot.  I will keep you all posted on how things go May 13th...not gonna lie, I am pretty nervous to walk into that place.