Hello all! So I must apologize. I haven’t posted in a while for a few reasons. 1. Chemo session 2 kicked my booty toot. 2. Ive been only focusing on my hair and crying and depressed because i have horrible patchiness, uneven baldness and feel literally disgusting everytime I look in a mirror, 3. Im making my family do my dirty work aka having best little sis Jill Franz write a phenomenal blog post on why I have to stop complaining about my hair but I cant! Grrrr… Seiously though what is up with the below pictured line across my forehead! Like if it isnt already bad enough im bald… Now I have a line across my head!

Okay, anyways…so lets kick it back a little to Tuesday November 24th, that was chemo session two. I met with my doctor, she said I was looking good, I was feeling great with a smile on my face and slightly excited for another session because thats one step closer to the finish line right;)! Jill drove up to spend the week with John and I as we prepare to host our first Thanksgiving for our families… All well good in the hood… oh was I so mistaken.

So my oncologist met with us and after saying how great I looked, she mentioned that my hair actually looked like it was growing! There was a pinch of hope in me as I said to myself, “Im gonna be the girl that chemo has reverse effects and I actually turn into Rapunzel instead of Rufus the Naked Mole Rat (Kim Possible… Get it 90s kids). She then followed up by saying “Were gonna change that today” NOOooOooOooOooo (in my brain this was in the voice of the Grinch on top of Mt Crumpit).

I changed the subject to discuss my reservations about taking the Neulasta medication again (Neulasta is my white blood cell booster that I had an itchy and irritating allergic reaction to in chemo session one). My doctor and nurse immediately got on the phone with the pharmacist to problem solve… Turns out if you take Pepcid (yup the tummy stuff) and Benedryl together they “supposibly” act as an antihistimine and counteract inflammation therefore assisting with the allergic reaction… Not for Meeee!

So after my appointment with the doctor, off to chemo I go! At first we walked into treatment room one (again!) and… dun dun dun, my wall seat was swipped by the sweetest little old woman! How rude! Didnt she know I was coming;) turns out she was in the wrong treatment room, so guess what! I got my favorite seat, YIPPEEeeeeee! It worked out great actually! It was me, my comfy seat, my hubby, and my sister as one big happy family in the corner near the bathroom! (Score!)

My fabulous nurse Trudy from my last session was there again and I was so thankful to see her! She immediately came over and started asking me all the “questions” they ask every session in their nursing interview. Basically its things like… “Do you have any sensation changes in your feet or hands?”, “How is your appetite?”, “What does your poop look like?”… (Okay the last one isnt as vulagr but they wanna know about constipation and diarrhea which is totally what I want to discuss in front of my new hubby… Doesnt she know girls Do Not poop!💩

My chemo session began, and my urge to pee every 5 minutes also started! Johns friend Rafat came to visit us and keep us company which was so nice, pays to have amazing friends that work in the hospital setting! Then, around the corner peeps the man in the red vest… Yes you guessed it! Mr. Bob my reiki master!!!! Bring me some reiki;)

He began talking then performing a little bit of reiki on me! I love when he is there because not only is he great company, but the reiki always seems to warm me up!

All in all session 2 flew by without a breeze. I did experience one weird symptom when they were running my 2nd drug, I like could taste it in the back of my throat and my nose was like dry and saltish! So weird, the nurse said they ran one of the drugs too fast— ✅ that for next time.

I was feeling great until the dreaded 24 hrs later, Neulasta the evil chemo devil went off. With my sister supervising for the hour it emersed throughout my body, I fell asleep on the couch and a few hours later woke up with my skin burning and it feeling like fire ants were under my skin preparing for winter just like in A Bugs Life! Talk about horrendous!

I immediately yelled for John (because he keeps me calm) and rushed into the bathroom, stripped my clothes and jumped into the tub. I layed for a while then went to bed. I just new all the achiness and hypersensitivity of my skin would happen again. You guessed it! Thanksgiving day and my skin ached, so bad that when my dad arrived and gave me a hug I screamed because of the pain. Its almost as if my entire body is covered in bruises!

  
  

You may be wondering why my sister has hair in the chemo pictures but a shaved head two days later at Thanksgiving dinner. Turns out she’s a girl to he word, and since she was here a couple days after Chemo 2 and saw how upset I was that my hair was falling out so badly— that night she decided to “GO BRITTANY!”

She wanted me to cut the first ponytail and I was literally crying because 1. It was so touching that she would do this to me, and 2. I never would want her to feel the way I do about myself when I look in the mirror and don’t see my long hair.  Turned out Jill, John, and BFF Greg all shaved their heads that night!  The following day  my brother in law (davekoziel.com) live streamed him shaving his hair off!

I am so so thankful to have such amazing friends and family!  With their support and a tribe of baldies by my side, I hardly felt awkward being at Thanksgiving dinner with 20 people without a wig on!  Thank you guys… truly you do not even understand how much your bald head means to me! XOXO

Soo crazy me also decided to host Thanksgiving this year! Thankfully I have an amazing family who when they heard I wasnt feeling so well everyone decided to pitch in to make a dinner for 20 guests possible! Even though I sort of planted myself under my blanket on the recliner for majority of the day… It was amazing to have many of my family all in our house for our first married holiday! I am so so blessed! Bring on chemo session 3 and Christmas!!! I cannot wait!

Xoxo Meg