My third chemo sucked last week.  I ended up getting what the oncology peeps call a “flare” with the Adriamycin (doxorubicin).  That involved burning and redness showing the path of the Adriamycin (aka, the Red Devil) ravishing my vein.  Apparently the Adriamycin burns through a layer of the vein occasionally, if administered too quickly or without enough dilution.  The nurse started to freak out when she saw what happened, and told me that in nine years of working with chemo patients, she has only had this happen once before.  Bing’s comment: “That looks like it hurts.”  Well, it did.

This is a picture of the flare after a some time, and it had “calmed down.”

Next time, the nurse is going to push my Adriamycin, just to be certain it goes in slow enough and diluted enough.  We thought with my second administration that I was so sore because we had used the same vein as with the first round.  Now I just think that I am very sensitive to this medication, regardless whether we reuse a vein.

On the bright side, since I was hairless for this round, the nurses brought out a few bags of hats for me to try on and told me to take however many I want.  This is a bad thing to say to a girl who hasn’t gone on a shopping trip in a long time.

I took home three diffferent hats.  One knit hat, one quilted hat, and one that I can use for hiking and what not when this is all over.  It’s nice to have some head covering options!  Not that I didn’t have a few already (thank you Heather!).  I have one handmade hat that Heather knit for me which fits perfectly under my riding helmet, and has become an accessory for me and my pony.  Then I typically wear fleece hats around in the chilly mornings, at least until the sun comes up.  (Bing and I are officially old-we actually enjoy waking up before sunrise.)

Here’s a mini picture montage of the Yampa Valley Medical Center Infusion Unit.  I know my mom will want to see this.

Oh, I almost forgot to explain the “crazy hair” part of this blog post.  Well, in case I haven’t discussed it enough, I don’t have hair on my head.  I don’t have hair in my armpits.  I have hair on my big toes.  There is hair on my legs but it is a bit crazy-it sticks in all different directions.  Then as far as my hair “down under,” it stopped growing underneath but still has some crazy growth along the top.  Basically, I have completely pointless bikini-area hair loss since I still need to wax and/or shave in order to look appropriate in a bikini.  Total B.S., yet again!

On a brighter note, I still have eyelashes and eyebrows.  I am hoping they hang in there until the end!