Fort's Cancer Sux!!

BIG, LONG, LONG DAY..... So last night I headed to Dayton since I had chemo this morning. Stopped by Barnes & Noble and picked up some volleyball coaching books to study up on during chemo. Why you ask? Oh, no big deal. I was only running my first high school volleyball practice by myself for the very first time. Nervous? Uh....yeah. Thats my practice plan im holding above. Did it run smoothly? Ill get to that later....

This morning I go to Dr. Romers for chemo at 8am sharp. Ive had a pretty busy week and after doubling my doses last week I was a little nervous about getting my "Pre-chemo Blood Counts" ......rightly so.

For some reason I let Joni just prick my finger for the blood counts. This is significant because it was my way of telling her I had a feeling i might be in trouble. I mean, I felt "OK".....but I was a little wiped out and that always is a sign that my white or Red blood cells might be off. So i let her do the quick and easy way of taking blood (not taking the time to put in a whole iv) in case they were going to send me home.

Oh....funny story, so Joni goes to prick my finger on my left hand....I cant have BP taken or IVs there because of all the Lymph nodes that are gone there. I was like, "Uh....are you allowed to do that on that hand?" She just looked at me with a strange look, "Melissa, you're not going to get a blood clot from a finger prick".....fair enough.

What you say? Fort? Go home without chemo? I dont know what got into me. At the moment I just didnt feel like fighting about it. This is where it gets funny.

So one of the nurses comes in and tosses my results on my lap and sarcastically says, "Oh, these look GREAT."

"Are you being sarcastic?" I ask.

She nods. Her face also says, "duuhhh"

I know who im taking this to. Joni is going to handle this one for me.

"Joni, whats up with these counts? Your not going to send me home are you?"

Joni shakes her head. "Uh, yeah....probably. You have NO white blood cells. you're gonna be in the hospital if you dont watch it. Dont get near any sick people! Ill go run this by Romers nurse practitioner."

Dr. Romer now has a nurse practitioner working with him to help him - I guess he's got a tremendous client load these days and I was told that the NP is a nurse with a masters....practically a dr.....she can meet with patients and write Rx's. Thats good!...lots of people want Romer!

So Joni comes back and tells the story of her visit to Romers NP and subsequently, Dr. Romer. I guess Joni showed the NP my blood counts and commented, "Yeah, I bet he lets her get chemo and just cuts the Gemzar in half".....(The Gemzar is what is messing with my WBC counts)...to which the NP apparently was shocked that he might let me proceed.

Sure enough, "Dr. Clutch" comes through again. Joni was close. He let me have chemo but pulled the Gemzar for this treatment. If my counts get up again Ill probably go back on the Gemzar. I was ESTATIC, and further deepened my appreciation for this Doctor who has gotten to know me well enough to trust my instincts. We play it by ear, push the envelope, and keep it agressive. Thats exactly what I want.

So I got my chemo, AND had a few hours to work up my practice plan.

Got to work around 1:30, and was super busy right up until I left at 4:30. I felt a little bad because I got there RIGHT at 5:00p and this was the first time I was on my own to unlock the place. Everything went smoothly. Got into the main doors, got into the gym....and then I had a bad key for the most important door! The closet with the balls and the net!!! Arrrggghhh!!.

I had to call the head coach and she came out and went and made me a copy of her key. She got out there around 530 and helped me get in.

But I had to do a little improvising for that time and work the girls with no net. Running laps, some wall sits, situps, plyos and some more laps. The girls were great and went with the flow until we got the net up and the balls out.

Serving drills, Hitting, a 3 on 3 "queen of the court" drill and we were done! Everything went well. Im getting excited about the season. I hope I can see this through with some visible success for the team. They're a great bunch of girls.

John actually walked over to the gym and sat through practice with me and then we headed over to Kroger for some grocery shopping. Just got home and I am seriously wiped out.

Just need to do some dishes and then its off to bed.

I did have the tumor marker test today so Ill find out about that hopefully by Thursday. This weekend were off to Athens for Dave's big homecoming from Iraq. Cant wait!

Thats all folks. Sorry this post was kinda lame. Oh yeah. Marisa got THE WORST picture of me dancing at the reception.

If I get 10 people to answer this question, I show it to you. (IF you have it DONT POST IT!)

If you could wake up tomorrow having acquired any skill or trait, what would it be?