No Wig Day!

I finally went into work without my wig. I spent some time trying on scarves and clips this morning, but decided to go in without any additional covering. I even bought cloth napkins from Pier 1 yesterday to tie as a scarf around my head. Oddly, they're just the right size. Anyway, I didn't want to be mistaken at any point as a guy so I wore a pink shirt, long earrings, mascara, and a bracelet. The first people to see me was Helen, who has been away in China for a month, and Jennifer, who was gone for a week, so they didn't realize this was my first day without my wig. The new post-docs in the lab thought I cut my hair. Megan was the only one that touched my hair after I told her that it was baby soft.

I did get some stares from other people on my floor who are not part of the lab. I came in without my wig today, a full week ahead of when I thought I was going to, in honor of Kat, who had to wait the entire weekend for the results of her bone scan. The scan was all clear to everyone's relief! That wait in itself can kill you though. You try to stay busy and forget about waiting, but it's really impossible.

All in all, a good beginning to no wigs!

Bad News Day for other people

When I was coming into work, the radio had mentioned that the last rites were being given to Farrah Fawcett. Well, she passed away after battling metastatic anal cancer for 3 years today. News, especially bad news, goes around fast.

Then I was on my YSC site when I learned that ChicagoJen has had a recurrence of breast cancer. This is really the first time that I knew someone that was NED (no evidence of disease) and had a recurrence of her breast cancer. I feel awful for her, especially since I met her while I was in Texas.

Then, there's Michael Jackson, who just passed away. He's only 50. Who knows what lead to his death. People in my lab suspect it was drugs since he had a heart attack. 

Also, one of my proteins I was generating in the lab didn't get produced/purified very well. I would call it a day, but I must now do a ligation.

Consumer reviewer experience

I finished the breast cancer grant reviewing on June 9th in Reston, VA. I was part of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program for Breast Cancer Research, which received $150 million from Congress this year. I got to meet 30 other breast cancer survivors who were also serving as consumer reviewers, 4 in total were affilitated with YSC. It was really wonderful to see several survivors 15 years out and very active in their communities. There were quite a number of organizations that I wasn't familiar with.

I enjoyed the process immensely even though they put you in a research area you are not familiar with so that you can "wear the consumer hat". So a lot of background reading involved. It was fun asking the scientific reviewers what kind of immediate impact the proposed research would have on breast cancer patients. They have several reviews a year so if anyone who is a survivor is interested in meeting scientists and seeing what the latest research idea is, check out the website: http://cdmrp.army.mil. The food, hotel, and travel were all paid for, and of course, there's a stipend! There will be some pictures sent to me by one of the other survivors that I'll pass along. There was one consumer from Canada as well as grant applications from Canada so you don't have to be an American to participate!

453 mg Herceptin

I had my Herceptin infusion today over 40 min as usual. The phlebotomist was not Keisha, but the woman who had blown out my vein before. I was not happy when I saw her, but she actually did it fine. It wasn't until another nurse commented that I had a bigger needle than usual that I realized that was the case. I did see the needle today and mentally said oh boy, but I never usually look when I'm about to be poked.

I brought in some wedding magazines for my nurse MaryBeth, who will be getting married in July in PA. The funny thing is that another nurse, Liam, is an associate pastor, and he will be officiating the wedding.

My latest hair pic taken June 14th. Sam drives me to work while I put on my makeup and the wig. I put the wig on when the car is moving so that people aren't staring into the car. My hair is now long enough that it stays wet from the shower, and I have to towel it off.

Don't have surgery over the summer, if possible!

Well, it's been a year since I've my first lumpectomy. It was on the 16th! Today, Matt the new surgical resident was saying that July is when the new surgical residents come on board and when there will probably be more mistakes! He said there was a study done on it, and I think that I've heard of that, too. Now you know! I want to add that this is really for a teaching hospital.

This week in pics

Matt's farewell: Matt's starting his surgery residency and will be leaving the lab after 4 years. We went to Szechuan House for lunch and marbled cake. I put Jennifer's hair in chopsticks. Watch out, Matt! You're going to need that eye for surgery!

Melissa's back from CA! We had dinner this weekend in Vienna, VA at Ega. Look at Morgan's lovely hair!

Richard and Jen's wedding

Sam and I went to the wedding of a fellow Men's group member, Richard Yang, who married Jen Yoon. Jen's got a green thumb and grew the ivy for the party favors! Their wedding colors were turquoise blue and orange, very springy! Jen made a gorgeous bride.

Herceptin today--6 more to go!

Today I first met with Carol Riley to go over how I've been. She said I looked really well. I mentioned the slightly tingling toes and the achy lower ribs, but she only wrote down my eye twitching and the start of my period, which only lasted 2 days. I asked her about the nutritionist at Hopkins, but she said that the ones at Hopkins really deal with those in chemo having problem eating, not for eating well afterwards. She said my echo was fine. I wanted to know more about my mammogram results. She said that there were some calcifications in the mammogram, but most likely they were benign since they looked scattered and not clustered together. The followup mammo is in 6 months, but I have to check with her next week in making the appointment. She wanted to talk to Dr. Eisner, the radiologist, first. Calcifications make me uneasy since I don't have any on my normal side. They may have cropped up due to the surgery. I should try to get a copy of my mammo. Carol checked me out and felt the scar tissue behind the incision. She also scheduled me for the 6 Herceptins until Oct. and another echo.

I then went upstairs to get my Herceptin. Marybeth was there, and my Herceptin bag was already there so no wait. Apparently, there was a lot of commotion earlier in the day, and Marybeth said she would keel over if the bag was mine. Anyway, I found out that she got engaged 2.5 weeks ago, and she's having her wedding on July 11th! She'll be moving to San Diego for 3 years. I guess her new husband will be there. She was so great during the chemo treatments. I'm going to miss her.

Keshia was telling me about this great crab place she knows when she was putting in the iv. She put it in a new place, right on top of the bend in the right arm, but she didn't get it in correctly. Unfortunately, the saline went in the wrong place and formed a hard lump. It's a good thing that I told her it hurts a little before she connected me to the saline bag. In the end, she put the iv in "Old Faithful", the vein that has lasted throughout chemo until now. I'm very grateful for this vein because it means I usually only have 1 stick to get in the iv. Next time I'm not going to distract her with talk of crabs until AFTER she puts in the iv.

Yesterday I finished critiquing the 8 grants in cell biology that I was assigned with 1.5 hours to spare. That's not bad for those who know me. => I have 3 more to review as a reader. I'm just suppose to read the summaries, but I'll probably end up going through the whole thing. I haven't typed so much in such a long time. I realized that my spelling is going downhill. It takes me just a little bit longer to spell some words. I blame it on chemobrain. This Sunday I'll be heading to DC to meet the other reviewers and start going over the grants.