Chemo Round 6

Today marks what would have been my last round of chemo before my surgery with Sugarbaker, but given how well I performed so far, I earned another round. Today, then, marked my second to last -- penultimate, if you will -- chemo before the Sugarbaker show. I felt great as I woke up, put on my Great White Shark shirt that my OMM friend Jillian bought me (I suspect she wanted it to become a chemo shirt and, if so, she totally succeeded), had some yummy Christmas leftovers, and headed to USC Norris.

I was a touch late to my appointment with Dr. Lenz, and I had to face the music when he flew into the room. He teased me about being late, knowing that it couldn't be because of traffic (very true), but because of, as he said, "too many parties." He was right -- I did stay up a little late last night belting out tunes to Rock Band 3 with Will and my dad, and had to hit the snooze button a couple of times this morning.

The rest of my meeting with Dr. Lenz went well and was very fun. We planned my final round of chemo (which will be on January 10), my final set of CT scans (which will be on January 18th), and my final appointment with Dr. Lenz (which will be on the day before we take off for the cross-country trip to D.C.). We had a good time talking about the book and the blog, and I got a big hug before I headed to the Day Hospital for the last cancer killfest of 2010. I know I'm already going to miss him while I'm on my East Coast adventure, but I'm comforted by the fact that 1) I have a feeling that I'm going to love Ilse Sugarbaker and Dr. Sugarbaker so I'll be distracted, and 2) I can always call and email if I want to get a dose of Dr. Lenz. The only drawback to enjoying people so much is that you miss them when you're not around them. A small price to pay, though, in the grand scheme of things.

The chemo treatment itself was great. The best nurse at Norris took care of me, I spent time with Sabrina (who finally got to meet Dr. Lenz, which was awesome since she's the one who got us in to see him way back when), I caught up with my old friend Tiffany and her mom Carol, I snoozed while getting a foot rub from my dad and listening to Mumford & Sons, and I shared lots of laughs with Will and my mom.

As always, chemo day was awesome. It's always great to kill cancer, but when you're doing it with such wonderful people surrounding you and supporting you, it couldn't be better.