Hair today….Posted on Sun, Aug 14, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
Today is Kristin and my first wedding anniversary! We celebrated yesterday by going down to Governor’s Island, which we had never seen before, and having dinner and drinks at the Bowery Hotel, which we did see before, about a year ago, on our wedding night. Today we are relaxing at home, watching the rain fall and the be-ponchoed food delivery guys speed past each other on their bikes, plastic bags with smiley faces on them dangling from the handlebars. Kristin is currently getting us Indian food. Because she’s awesome.
As for why you haven’t heard from me in awhile, it’s just because things are going pretty good. And it’s sort of like your diary, excuse me, journal, from high school: you only wrote in it when things weren’t going so well, so going back and reading it makes it sound like you were massively depressed all the time. Or maybe that’s just me. So this is actually a “I’m doing great!” update!
I am currently on Round 2 of chemo, for which you should envision a boxing ring, referee, lady holding a sign that says “Round 2”, all the flashbulbs going off and the bell ding… the whole nine yards. Maybe add some ninjas in there to keep it fun. The symptoms do get a little worse, but not drastically, so it turns out, Round 2 is easier than Round 1 because this time, we know what to expect, how to deal with it and plan ahead.
Part of that includes receiving a white-blood-cell booster shot which has a complicated name but sounds a lot like Neutrogina, so that’s what I’ll be calling them. The ones I received at the hospital were the fast-acting kind, but this new one has a delayed effect, and will hopefully help prevent further hospitalization. The nurse called them the CostCo version, as they cost 4 times as much but are 10 times as effective. It also wins as the first shot in this entire process I don’t mind getting.
Back in May, Kristin did a lot of research about anti-cancer diets, and created one very targeted at my personal needs. After being on it a bit, we consulted with the holistic doctor at Sloan Kettering who confirmed all of Kristin’s findings (go Kristin!) and I have been on the diet ever since. The end result of all of this is that I lost about 30 lbs before the chemo even started, at which point I leveled out at a fit 190 lbs. I wasn’t trying to lose weight, but it’s kind of a nice side-effect. Chemo itself, thus far, has not had little-to-no effect on my weight.
On the other hand, chemo has had a significant effect on my hair. Around the end of my hospital stay, my hair began to fall out. I’d rub my chin, and wind up with a hand-full of hair. So rather than walk around like a mangy dog, I made a pre-emptive strike and shaved it all off. Kristin says between that and my new, slimmer figure, I look like a sexy yoga teacher. I’m considering getting a completely new wardrobe of loose-fitting natural cotton clothes with the seed husks still in them and sandskrit symbols, of which I never clearly understood the meaning.
So this next week will include the anniversary of Kristin looking at my leg and saying “What’s wrong with your leg?”, the anniversary of me going to the doctor and her saying “Uhh, yeah, you should really get that checked out” and “Yup, that’s cancer” and the anniversary of getting accepted as a patient by Dr. Healey at Sloan Kettering. It was a big week.
Categorized as Zipperlist Updates
Happy Anniversary, Ben and Kristin!!