6/3/11- This IS my hair. I bought it.

The next day, I had an appointment at the American Cancer Society’s office at Grand Army Plaza to try on wigs.

What a weird thing to have to do.

I woke up that morning feeling a little weak, but mostly fine.  I couldn’t really eat much but I carried around a huge bottle of water.  I should mention that was the day I awoke to my first side effect: A bunch of spots on my neck (acne).  Emotionally, I felt ok, until I took a seat in the office and noticed all the boxes of wigs around the room.  It really hit home, then, that I will actually be needed to use one sometime very soon.  Not all chemo medications cause hair loss, but my doctors assured me that the ones I am on do! (Sorry for the spoiler, but I’m bald as I sit here typing this entry.) The lady who worked there excused herself for a few moments.  My sister offered me a granola bar to which I responded by bawling and starting to hyperventilate. Hey, I have my moments!

The woman, C, came back into the room carrying so very many boxes…. of wigs… for me to try on.  At the time, my hair went down to about the middle of my back, so we had to figure out how to tie my hair back so that we could see what the wigs would look like on me.  She put a stocking cap on my head and we tried on a bunch of different styles of wigs.  Short ones, long ones, even a Tina Turner one (no joke.  She said she makes everyone try that one on for fun).  She handed me a longish, curly, black wig, so I put it on.  “Aw!” Said, C, “You look just like... Snow White!”  That was not what I was expecting her to say and it was definitely not the look I was going for.

To make a long story short, the windowless room was getting too stuffy, I was anxious, I hated nearly all the wigs, so I just settled for a shoulder length one that was very close to my own hair color.  Hey, it’s free.  I’ll worry about this stuff later on.

My dad and I dropped my sister off at work and on the way home I had my 2^nd side effect.  (WARNING- MINOR TMI APPROACHING) In a moving vehicle, I had to throw up. It’s funny how the medication works, because it somehow keeps me from feeling nauseous, but I still felt an odd sensation where I knew that I’d have to vomit.

The next few days, I mostly just rested at home.  On Saturday night, the day after the wig fitting, I started getting really sharp pains on my back and sides of my ribs.  These were very sharp, stabbing, pains.  Quite scary at the time.  I figured out a way where if I laid down on the floor and stretched my body, the pains decreased a bit.  This lasted for about 2 or so hours.   I later found out those pains were caused by the Neulasta injection as I mentioned before.

My next appointment was the following Tuesday.  I came armed with a handwritten sheet full of side effects.  I found out I had lost 8 pounds since the previous Wednesday.  Any other time, I would have been excited, but seeing as how this was only my first cycle of chemo, I was really worried.  On that day, I received my shorter, half hour long, infusion of Herceptin, which is just the brand name of “Trastuzumab” which “is in a class of medications called monoclonal antibodies. It works by stopping the growth of cancer cells.”

So, I get my chemo infusions once every 3 weeks… and during the filler weeks, I get a dose of the antibodies medication.

Finally… Round one, done.