Last day of chemo! Actually, today is when I get the last dose of chemo. Since each bag runs 24 hours, my chemo won't really be done until tomorrow afternoon. And I thought it will be over by today. Oh well, just a few more hours. So far, no vomiting and other usual side effects.
Now that my white blood cells are down to 0.4, whatever virus or bacteria I have in my body will come out and manifest itself, right? Well, one of them came out today - chicken pox! Yes, I started getting little bumps on my scalp last night (there's my motivation to shave! ha! ha!), thought it was just an allergic reaction to the shampoo cap. It spread to my upper arms by this afternoon. The doctor said it is varicella, or to people like me who don't understand medical terms, chicken pox. I got it from myself. So it's off to the isolation for me! Maybe it's just their subtle way of telling me not to be too chatty with the nurse and staff. :-) I hate giving up my "suite", but apparently the air in the isolation room is better, so that should be good.
To many people, chicken pox may sound terrible (yes, it's very itchy), but in my mind, I keep thinking it could be worse than chicken pox. There's an endless list of things that could go wrong, and I'd rather have chicken pox than something worse. Please keep praying for me. In addition to my requests yesterday, that the antibiotics they put in me will keep the chicken pox and other harmful bacteria or virus at bay.
On the brighter side, I had an amazing revelation today: my oncologist, Dr. Cynthia Martel, is a real live Doogie Howser! Some nurses told me that she was one of the youngest doctors here years ago, and that she's like a genius of some sort. She was very open and humble when I her asked about it. She started medical school at 11 (gulp!), but she quickly added that it took her the same number of years to finish medical school and a PhD. Okay, but I'll bet she's only putting in half the study time of most students. Dr. Martel actually met the actor. I'm sure both of them were pleased to have met the other. Wow! What a blessing! I owe Cristina a big one.
As always, it was heart-warming to hear from my mom and my sister, relatives and friends who called, and to read email and text messages from everyone. An extra treat was to get a visit from my dear friends from Texas, Josephine and George, who came to LA to attend a family event.
That's it for today. Thank you all for your prayers and God bless you.
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