Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Infused with Peace

I just opened my email and was overwhelmed by kind notes sent yesterday, before and during my chemotherapy. THANKS! Your prayers did powerful things: despite my needle phobia and toxin phobia, everything went smoothly and was uneventful. I felt an unexpected peace.

Jane drove me to the clinic and stayed for the beginning (until I got sleepy from the Benadryl pumped in to prevent allergic reaction) -- she is a wonderfully calming presence. The nurses were kind and quick with needles. There were no scary sensations or pain. I just laid under my prayer shawl and listened to music for the 2.5 hours.

Even the days leading up to treatment were far more peace-filled than I would have anticipated, given my chemo-fears (and, yes, there is such thing as knowing too much; my medical writing career is a disadvantage in this situation). Now that I don't need radiation and have completed the surgery, I am motivated to just check off these 4 (now 3!!) infusions and get back to a normal life. The end is in sight!

I'm taking an unbelievable amount of medicine to counter side effects (and, of course, each of these has potential side effects), but so far, so good. The fatigue is likely to kick in tomorrow. So I'm going for a walk right now.

Many thanks to you all!

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