Week in Review/Week in Preview

It's Sunday, and you know what that means...review and preview time.

Week in Review

• Ding ding ding!!! Chemo Round 3 was this week, and it went well. Had a great time getting my blood drawn, peeing in a cup, hanging out with Dr. Lenz, and spending 4.5 hours getting my delicious chemo meds. It all went smoothly and without incident...well, a tiny incident. The nurse at the day hospital in charge of my chemo process had some issues finding the completely obvious lump in my chest known as my portacath. She squinted as she held the needle precariously close to my chest, and would pull back the needle and look closer at the port, then bring the needle back to my chest, then pull it back again. It was enough to make me grab the needle, shove it in my port, and smack her in the arm. Luckily for everyone, I kept my composure and eventually, she did her job and got me my magic cancer-killing juice. But if I see her again on a Chemo Day, there's going to be a problem. Here's a picture of me trying to keep calm while the nurse fumbled around. 
• Worked out at Educogym all week -- pumped iron despite carting around my bag o' on Monday and Tuesday. Definitely seeing a lot of progress in terms of muscle mass, and starting to graduate to reasonable weights (as in, weights more similar to those I used to lift before my surgery). Did my bench press on 120 pounds all week which means I'll be moving on up soon.
• Made a big dent in Anatomy of an Illness book but still haven't finished it yet (what a slacker).
• Painted two new "Love Life" paintings -- little ones (8x11) but I think they're pretty cool. 
• Spent time at OMM on Thursday -- worked a bit on the book (though not enough), and spent time with my people at our Third Thursdays cocktail party. Awesome to catch up with my OMM fam.
• Adventure in the Palisades on Friday -- meditation at the Lake Shrine Temple's Meditation Gardens, acupuncture with Mary Ellen, lunch in Santa Monica at Jack 'n Jill's with Mom and Aymee (props to Aymee for getting us seating in the upstairs section despite it being "closed"), and back to downtown in time for the gym.
• Rediscovered Manhattan Beach on Saturday (haven't been there since Hell Week during my high school volleyball days). Walked on the beach, enjoyed the little aquarium on the end of the pier (highlight was the leopard shark), had a great lunch at Izaka-ya by Katsuya, and watched the sun set while enjoying some frozen yogurt (despite it being really chilly outside). 
• Spent time with Morgan on Saturday night and Sunday -- we watched a terrific "supernatural horror" film called Monkey Shines. It's about a quadriplegic law student who gets a supersmart helper monkey. Clearly, things go awry. I won't spoil the rest of it so you can watch it yourself. We also watched Death of a Ghost Hunter, which was also good but can't compare to the monkey movie. Really, no movie can.
• Spent Sunday afternoon with Will in Larchmont Village then scored some sweet new Nikes. 
• Watched my Blue Devils improve to 3-0 with some serious wins. They are so, so good.
• Began the odyssey of preparing for my CT Scan tomorrow. Dr. Sugarbaker had some "special" instructions for my prep for the scan, and let me be the first to tell you -- they are special. Detailed post about my CT scan (prep and scan itself) tomorrow.
• Took all my vitamins, got all my Lovenox shots, drank loads of water, and continued beating the hell out of cancer. 

Week in Preview

• CT scan on Monday to track my progress so far (and cancer's lack of progress). Looking forward to carrying out Dr. Sugarbaker's special instructions and finishing the scan process, then rejoining my normal life of eating solid foods and not drinking the stuff you have to drink before scans. 
• Pumping iron at Educogym all week -- graduating to 140 on the bench press (yes, I'm a little bit of a beast). I'm pretty sure it's a good thing that, while undergoing chemo, I've been able to work out hard (I'm not overdoing it, though) and build muscle. I will flex for you whenever you want.
• Kicking in to serious party planning mode for my 29th birthday. Details to be ironed out soon, invites to follow. It's going to be sweet.
• Heading to OMM this week to work on the book and the blog -- while my mom labors away, preparing a delicious Thanksgiving meal, I'll go to the office. It's better that way. A domestic goddess I am not.
• Thanksgiving!! Despite not actually contributing anything to the festivities but my party-loving spirit, we're having the holiday at our place in downtown L.A. Should be excellent -- family time is always a good time, and I look forward to eating the slightly-healthier-than-usual-but-still-delicious Thanksgiving fare.
• On Thanksgiving night, we're heading to Portland for the Duke/Oregon game!! My parents and Will and I leave in the evening, and will be in Portland until Sunday afternoon. I've been there before (on some awesome and very memorable work-related trips) but this will be the first time in Portland for my nurses. Looking forward to a great time.
• Going to the Duke/Oregon game on Saturday!! Front row seats to watch my favorite team. I can't really express how excited I am about this. SO EXCITED. I'm actually pretty impressed that I was able to write about anything else in the coming week besides the Duke game. Trying not to get too ahead of myself but the moment my Blue Devils run out of the locker room and start warming up will be an incredible one. I will be fighting back tears of joy, I promise. 
• Continue doing all the things I need to do to kiss this cancer goodbye although, I've gotta admit, it's contributed to some pretty great living these days.

Have a great week, everyone!!