Round 3 - Here I Come!

So tomorrow’s the big day. The start of round 3. I really was hoping that I’d never be saying those words. But life continues to throw me a curveball, and I’ll continue to do everything I can to hit it out of the ballpark.

When I asked Dr. Smith what I should be doing to prepare for tomorrow’s chemo, he told me to get exercise and hydrate myself. So tonight I went to the gym and I’m drinking large amounts of water and tea. Tomorrow morning I will plan to work out some more before heading to Smith Integrative Oncology to get the fabulous cocktail that will kill my cancer.

The last 24 hours have been filled with another cancer related effort – trying to figure out how to save my hair. Yesterday, when I was speaking with Dr. Smith’s nutritionist, I jokingly asked her if there was anything that I could eat that would prevent hair loss. She then told me that she had heard of people using the Penguin Cold Cap system. The theory is that the cold cap freezes the hair follicles which prevents the chemo from being absorbed. I looked into it last night, and since the company was located in England, I left a message on their machine asking if there was any possibility of obtaining the Penguin caps by Thursday.

I received a call at 7 am from the President of the company saying that he wanted to help me. Although I wasn’t giving them enough time to ship me the caps, he told me that he’d try to find someone locally who would lend them to me. Amazingly enough, within an hour, he was calling me back to let me know that there was a woman in San Francisco who just finished her chemo yesterday and was more than happy to pass them off to me. So – I went to her home, she gave me all of her supplies and demonstrated how to attach the caps to my head (there will be 14 of them and I’ll be changing them every 30 minutes). She then offered to meet me at my chemo appointment tomorrow to make sure that I have the system down and to teach Pat the best way to put on the cap. The people that I have met on this journey continue to amaze me with their incredible generosity.

But – the most phenomenal thing was that she was a breast cancer patient and had a full head of hair! I spoke with several other breast cancer penguin cap users today that had the same story. They all had most, if not all, of their hair after they finished chemo.

So tomorrow – with the first of many caps on my head – I’ll be heading to chemo. I may look funny – but heck – I have hope that I’ll have a full head of hair when I’m done with this.

At 11:30 am I’ll be starting chemo. Please send me your prayers and positive thoughts. My body is strong and I’m feeling energized. This time I’m going to win. I just know it.