Everyone knows sequels are never as good as the originals. Anyways, yesterday saw me receiving my second blast of chemotherapy at Boston’s Dana Farber Clinic. I was fortunate to get my own private room for the day, which is nice because I can shut the door for privacy and shut the lights out if I feel like it. I'm not crazy about being in the open rooms with all the other people receiving treatments around you.

The whole session went for just over six hours. Jenn drove me down and stayed with me for the whole day...although it couldn’t have been that comfortable sitting on the chair for that long in the room we were in. But in any case it went well. Kathy, my super-nurse, was the bomb...switchin’ the drips, injecting them needles, bringing in handfulls of pills...it was on....again.

Mom came by to visit for about an hour. She didn’t stay all too long after I whopped her in a game of gin. Its always nice to have a visitor...and someone to give a gin lesson to.

Something I haven’t mentioned in posts past...Dana Farber has the best chicken salad sandwiches. See, when you are going through chemotherapy they have these very friendly volunteers who bring lunch and snacks around to all the patients. They really encourage you to eat during the sessions as it helps to prevent getting sick. During my first treatment, three weeks ago, I had a mad craving for a chicken salad sandwich....the drugs give you some strange cravings as well as changing the tastes of a lot of foods. For some reason I’ve had a desire for chicken salad at both treatments...and, lucky me, their chicken salad kicks ass. The peanut butter cookies on the other hand...

I left the clinic wiped. Felt like I hadn’t slept in weeks. Felt like I got hit by a school bus. Felt like I wanted my bed at home asap. Jenn drove us home, ate some dinner, took some medications, and I was in bed at the 8:15. I slept through the night pretty well. I didn’t get sick, which was a blessing seeing how sick I got after the first treatment. This morning I wanted to keep sleeping, but Jenn had to wake me up so I can take more pills (here we go with the pills again). I’ve been up since, feeling very drained but okay.

I had my typical blood tests done before I started treatment yesterday. See they test your blood every time before they administer a chemo treatment. If your white blood cell count is too low, they won’t give it to you...cause it could kill you. I was happy to see that my WBC was up to 3,000...of course, its probably way lower today...but the point is my body is healing post-treatment...so far, so good.

On the kind of down side, I’m not happy with what the outside of my body is starting to go through. I’m sort-of starting to lose my hair...now anybody that knows me is saying “big friggin’ deal, Porz, you buzz-cut your hair anyways”...and yes, this is true. But I honestly have a little fear of “looking sick.” I knew this was coming a couple days ago, the rate of my hair growth (both on my head and face) has slowed to a crawl. I got away with shaving one time for a whole week. There is nothing definite about this, some people never lose their hair. But as I see pieces here and there, it kind of brings me down. I’ll really be down if I lose my eyebrows, cause then I’ll really look sick. I know it all comes back at the end of treatment, and I’m not obsessing about any of this vanity. I’m only writing it as an effort to be totally honest on this site. If losing my hair is the cost for me to beat cancer and go back to a normal life with my family, I’ll throw in my hairy legs and backside too!

We have some family members coming over tomorrow (Saturday) to help complete the baby’s room. I never finished it because of how sick I got, but my family is really kickin’ in the clutch.

Just typing this entry has completely drained me...so I’m cutting it off a bit short. Thanks to all the people who have posted on this site and emailed me their best wishes and prayers...I gladly accept them all, and thank you from the bottom of my heart.