Life Is Moving Right Along

Sooo far behind, I've been really bad about keeping you updated. 
Here's what's up!
Last few weeks have felt kind of normal, in a strange way... 
For one thing, my chemo was delayed for about three weeks. A 6 week long cycle instead of a 3 week one. My counts didn't come up enough to start again. So we checked, and checked, and my red blood cells went up, and my platelets went up, but my neutrophils/white count didn't. Every time I got a blood test, I was sure they'd be up. But three weeks went by. So I was really neutropenic for a while. Didn't get any chemo, and I felt fine. Great, even. 
I played an entire contra dance with one of my bands, Tunescape. The Rochester contra. It was a complete BLAST. I didn't even feel much more exhausted afterwards than way back when. Sooooo much fun. And we went out for sushi before the dance, which is kind of a tradition, though I didn't have any sushi (sad, but unknown raw foods were a no-no for neutropenic me). But the miso soup was AMAZING. 

I have gone to three TLC (www.teenslivingwithcancer.org) meetings so far, and I'm loving them! The people are wonderful, and I've been really enjoying meeting them. 

I saw two of my really close friends off, in the last few weeks, as they took off for college for the first time. I've been really involved especially with helping Sylvia. I spent a huge amount of time at her house, keeping her company during the packing/moving out process. I felt really glad that I got to do something important for her in return for her crazy amount of time spent with me this summer, especially in the hospital. And besides, it was a good excuse to spend extra time there!

I healed well after the insertion of my second port (the central line that I had put in over a month ago), and the big hole that was where my old port was is almost completely filled in.
Yay!

It was likely that I got some sort of virus last cycle, which some of the doctors at clinic think could have held my counts back. And now I've been sneezing a LOT, and snuffling, and it feels like what I imagine allergies feel like, but I've never had them before. But I've heard things like that can start with chemo. 

It's been fun noticing the foods that I really like/have liked lately. 'Cause food means a lot right now, especially since my appetite has been slightly lacking/weird. 
Yum list: Soup (mostly vegetable), green beans (sautéed, with or without other stuff, though with soy sauce especially), cucumbers (raw, by themselves. Mmm. But you've probably already heard me talking about them), carrots (dipped in salad dressing or by themselves), SALAD, pickles (whole crunchy dill pickles), salad, tomatoes (just whole, by themselves. Wonderfully messy!), zucchini, corn on the cob, rice with stuff, potatoes, bean burritos (with some cheese, tomatoes, salsa, and sour cream), baked tofu, that green juice that Odwalla makes, sour gummi worms (don't know where that one came from, considering all the healthier foods I've been thinking about), salad. Salad, as in dark, crunchy, wonderful, fresh lettuce, with some sort of salad dressing (vinaigrettes, Annie's Goddess dressing, garlicky, yummy). I don't usually make the salad with any other vegetables, for some reason. I think because I'm so eager to eat it right away...
But as I obsess with the salad, and veggies, and things, everybody keeps telling me that I need caloriescaloriescalories. So, a few days ago Sylvia said something like, "Ok, before you have your salad, you have to have some ice cream." So I did just that. The ice cream (vanilla, my current favorite) was nomnomnommy, but as soon as I finished it I went straight for the vegetable drawer in the fridge. :D

I went home for the first time since sometime in May a few weekends ago. It was WONDERFUL. I live about two hours away from Rochester, and I am pretty tied to being in Rochester for the next two-ish years. 
But mom and I took a weekend and drove home. It was great. I cuddled my cat a LOT, and my dad and I curled up on the couch and watched a bunch of movies. We also went to Bradford for the weekly anti-war protest, and hung out with those people for a while. 
I drove the Cabriolet with the top down, which was a blast. I adore that car. It's old, and tiny, and fun to drive, and it's a standard, and it shifts nicely. <3

I've been also having fun monopolizing the shiny Mac laptop that my mom got in exchange for the lemmon iMac we got last year. I adore this keyboard. Nuff said.

Today, after watching Sylvia ride off to another life, one in college in Canada, Mom and I drove over to the Waymans' place. Mom swam in the lake, Betty windsurfed, and I sat on the grass next to the lake and worked on a bracelet. Finished it. Then I started feeling a little icky, and cold, so I moved into the sun, put on a hoodie, and curled up on the side of the hill. I slept for over an hour. 

Some things that are really exciting, that should probably have been earlier in this post, because of how exciting they are.
Ok, well, this first one is possibly the most exciting just to me...
About a week ago I finally took out my seed bead collection. I used to make a lot of jewelry with them, especially in the car on long trips. I would sell them wherever I got the chance, especially at the beach. But I went a long time without making anything. Then, when I went home a few weeks ago, I brought my whole bead collection back with me to Rochester. And the bead loom and beadweaving supplies that I was sent while in the hospital. I'd been wanting to try bead-weaving for a while. 
I went to work on it, and came out with a bracelet that I was extremely happy with. And then I made another one. And another one. And I love to make them, and I already have three commissions. 
So this semester I'm only taking one class at MCC, calculus. I'm planning on spending my other time on music, some college-searching, and re-starting my jewelry business. I had mostly focused on chain-maille over the last few years. I still have a lot of that inventory. I want to combine these new bracelets with chain maille, and do art shows and things again. 
This may be crazy, but I really want to do it.

Other exciting thing...
I got chemo yesterday! FINALLY.
I got another blood test on Monday. Not high enough. I think the problem counts had even gone down. If they hadn't really gone up a lot by Wednesday, I was going to have to get a bone marrow test on Thursday.
Went in for labs at 8:30 Wednesday morning. Got a phone call several hours later from Margaret (one of the Nurse Practitioners, she's been really involved with all of this, and she's really awesome). She was so excited. They'd come up!!! I could get chemo that day!
So we drove back to clinic Wed. afternoon, and I got the whole lot: Doxorubicin, Dexrazoxane, Vincristine, and E-coli Asparaginase. 
I spent that time in clinic working on another bracelet. (That was where the commissions came from, especially from Laurie, the other NP.)
And so far, after this chemo I've felt fine. A little ickier, but not too bad. 

Some of us teens at TLC are planning on a little tour of the hospital sometime soon. Some of it including the tunnel, and the painting, and maybe a trip up to 41400 to say hi to the nurses. 

Ooooh we got an apartment up here! We haven't moved in yet though, the landlady wants to fix it up some more first. And she said that I can paint my room whatever color I want. And I want to paint it bright, with different walls being different colors. Excited. 
It's a cool little apartment. It's on the second floor of an oldish house right in Rochester, and the best thing is that there's a room up on the third floor that we get too. That'll be good if the downstairs people are noisy, or if we bug them too much with our playing tunes at strange hours, and me doing foot-percussion (it'd probably sound like the ceiling was about to cave in).
It's all wood, and simple, and has potential for being colorful and cozy.

My hair started growing back. Not drastically. There's just a shadow that's consistent instead of patchy, where my hair would be. And it's soft now, instead of occasionally prickly. But it's gonna get knocked out again. :P

I've been reallllly liking being bald. I'm totally used to it. It's ridiculously easy to take care of non-existent hair, and it feels so good. But hahaha I was cracking up so bad when we went into a hair salon for my mom. I did NOT ask for a haircut, much as I was dying to.

And I have an appointment in less than 9 hours, and I need to sleep. 
G'night!
And NBTSCers, I missed you all a lot this week, and wished I was there at Camp Myrtlewood, seeing your lovely faces. But hopefully I'll be able to make it next year. :)