Cuteness and Chemo

Hello, friends.

So, Mom got to go home from the hospital yesterday.  Horay!  We've had a few bumps in the road today, but she is doing better now.  I mean, the woman has been beat to hell with procedures in the hospital and stuck in a bed for the past 5 days and she still managed to get multiple enthusiastic "WOW!"s out of my Dad about how foxy she looked when she got ready for her appointment with the Oncologist today.  She can't get her chemo port wet yet, and she thinks she looks like a troll since she can't wash her hair normally, but really, she's adorable with her french braid and her scrunchie!

Remember scrunchies?  She has a whole plastic storage container of them, and today we carefully chose which one best matched her scarf and her cardigan.  Her collection kind of looks like this, but she is SLIGHTLY less dramatic about HER scrunchies:

Ok, so our appointment today was an informational/educational session about her chemo treatments.  Basically, they just tell you about the combination of drugs, what they do, potential side effects, and what it will be like when she goes to get her treatments.

We got to walk around where she'll get it done, and it's like, she'll be sitting in a big kind of recliner/armchair, and they will just hook up bags of each of the individual drugs to her chemo port and pump them in one right after the other.  It looks very similar to this, and it looks like this nice lady has a port also:

The first treatment will take the longest--they will drip the drugs into her slowly and closely monitor how her body reacts to them.  She's starting next Wednesday, and we've been told to expect that they will actually administer her first treatment over two days.  It will be a one-day thing, once every 21 days, after that.  She'll have between 6 and 8 treatments, and they will do some scans after the 6th to see if the others are necessary.

Since folks are there for a long time (on Wednesday, she will definitely be there all day), they are allowed to bring whatever they want to keep them occupied.  Computers, portable DVD players with headphones, iPads, books, snacks--you name it.  Whatever she needs to be entertained and comfortable, she will be able to bring.  She can also have 1-2 guests sit with her while she has it done, depending on how busy it is that day.

I know that she and I will be able to use treatment time to spend even more quality time with each other which I will treasure!  Because, after all....

I'm so thankful that she's got a little break from procedures to reset her batteries, rest, and be lifted up!  We so appreciate all the thoughts and prayers we've been getting, and soon, we'll be ready to kick this thing's ass!