Dear Chemo...#7

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 2:07 PM, EDT

Dear Chemo #7...

Dear Chemo,

I'm sure that you are sitting there thinking, "You don't call, you don't write..." but I just don't have anything NEW to say! You are pretty predictable, and for that I am grateful. My side effects (numbness of hands and feet, crabbiness, joint pain) are here, but manageable. My blood count Wednesday was almost completely normal. That's about as good as it gets the day of treatment. While that doesn't give me any indication that you are working, it does allow me to feel up to par through treatment. When I start with a good blood count, I feel better physically, which puts me in a good starting place emotionally.

Blood counts are also important because they have to be normal in order for me to have my surgery (late October/early November). The faster they bounce back, the sooner I have my surgery, and the sooner I'll know my lymph node status and final staging. Staging gives a better indication of prognosis (or outlook), which is basically my recurrence possibility and life expectancy now that I've been diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. So staging is pretty darn important. We expect a Stage II, and are hoping for no higher - and no lymph node involvement. Lymph nodes are kind of a train station for rogue cells. They can pick up a ticket to the bones, lungs or brain at the lymph node station.

So keep being predictable, chemo. Keep letting my blood count come back up. And chemo, if you and I could work out a deal for you to kill those rogue cells in my bloodstream, that would be perfectly acceptable...actually, you and God work that one out.

See you on September 21 for our last encounter!

Bean