The Book Babe Speaks

I had my last chemo treatment on Wednesday. I had great company in my super awesome friend Heather. She was the first person I truly connected with when I moved here in 2002 and I totally adore her! She, along with a few other members of Team Faith, were integral in helping me feel like I belonged here and I will always be grateful for that.

The chemo seems to be kicking my a– more than usual so I figure that the drugs are like “what! this is the last time we get to make her feel so horrible, well lets make it a memorable experience or something like that”… Not that I could ever forget about chemo side effects but whatever. Now that I am done, other than the next three weeks of side effects, the rest of the year will be this: wisdom teeth extraction-all of them due to the chemo wreaking havoc and creating chaos; radiation-every day for six weeks, starting sometime after the wisdom teeth thing; I get a blissful few weeks off to heal from radiation and then meet the surgeon to determine whether or not I have healed enough to start reconstruction. Assuming that I have, I then meet with the plastic surgeon to start the three surgeries that are involved with getting me a shiny/pretty new set of girls. Not Christmas girls though. I was hoping that Santa would bring me a new set but it is going to take longer than that. Sigh…

Last Sunday, I went to see Wicked, the musical. It was one of the best musicals I have ever seen and I was completely blown away. I am a huge fan of the book and even though the musical is different from the book in a lot of ways, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved every minute of it. On the way back to the parking garage, I was stopped by a woman who remarked on the fact that I was out and about sans wig. She is currently undergoing treatment as well and has not reached that point yet. We both immediately burst into tears and hugged. It was very nice to hear, I still randomly get self conscious about the baldness. I think what really made me all emotional was the immediate sense of sisterhood I felt. It is amazing how in that instant that we recognized each other, nothing else mattered, we were both strong women surviving this life changing  journey the best way we knew how. We must have stood there for two or three minutes just hugging and silently crying. It was quite a moment and there were so many things that I wanted to say but was way too emotional…. Silly emotions sneaking up on me like that.

Speaking of this long journey I am on, I am officially signed up to participate in the Susan G Koman 3 day Walk in November. I am totally committed to doing this, my friend Angelique (one of the many who worked tirelessly on Project BookBabe) walked last year and will be again this year. Our team name is Project BookBabe’s Walkers for Knockers. Many of the Team Faith/Project BookBabe ladies are or will be soon part of that team so there will be quite a show of support. Once gain, I get all emotional when I think about it. I freakin’ love my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The training is slow to happen but Angelique comes over every Tuesday and Thurday night around 10 (it is way too hot before then) and we walk for as long as I can handle. I push myself a bit longer each time, I am determined to walk the entire 60 miles.

So it appears that I can’t keep these short…I will try to post more frequently so as to keep the lengths bearable…