You know youre a cancer patient when....
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YKYACPW ...
You go grocery shopping and when you get to the cash with a full cart of food, you realize that you can't remember the PIN numbers for any of your credit cards (complete mental blank!). You ask them to keep your cart of food while you drive home to find the paper where you wrote this stuff down. You bring the paper with you to the store because you don't trust yourself anymore, and enter your code and it works! You still carry that paper in your wallet even though you shouldn't because you never never want to go through that experience again!!!!
When you finish chemo and your hair grows back gray and curly, but weirdly it grows much faster on the sides than on top of your head. You start to look like Krusty the clown!
After wearing bangs for all of your life to hide your huge forehead, you now have hair that refuses to grow more than 1 inch on top. You actually get compliments on your forehead! (What?)
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Abracadabra, I thought I was the only person that happened to. I know I shouldn't but all my cards have the same pin, and I had that same number for 15 years. Forgot it! To this day I have never been able to remember what it was.
Then of course if you want to change the pin online as this happened on a weekend, you have to put in the old pin first
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OMG, the Krusty the Clown reference was hilarious!
I know the feeling of losing your bangs and waiting for them to grow back. It feels like forever.
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then there comes the day you feel something strange in your hair, and realizing you FINALLY have enough for the wind to blow around.
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When you are excited to start chemo because you are ready to kick some cancer ass
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That's exactly how I felt about starting chemo! "Attack!" When my hair started falling out, I was ok because I knew that the falling hair meant that the chemo was working.
I love this thread ... you get it.
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YKYACPW ...
Shortly after my second chemo treatment, I got a fever and wound up in isolation at the local hospital while they figured out what was going on.
The on-call oncologist came to see me ... a lovely young man I had never met before. He came into the room, introduced himself, then surveyed me (pale, bald head, hospital gown), and asked me if we had already met, as I looked familiar.
I thought to myself "Seriously, Dude? I'll bet I look familiar ... you are an oncologist ... probably half the people you interact with are bald women who look a lot like me!!!"
Anyway, it struck me as kind of funny... and also kind of sad ...
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You have a lunch date with a good friend who lives on the other side of the city. You get into your car and start to drive, but chemo brain takes over and your mind starts to drift God knows where.
Suddenly you realize that you have left the route to her house a while ago, and are now driving to your son's school (which is almost a reflex since you drove him there so many times over the years). You eventually get turned around and arrive late for lunch. Your friend, worried, asks what happened, and when you explain, her response is "Don't think and drive!".
We both cracked up. Chemo brain ....
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LOL!!!
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Abracadabra, that's how I felt about losing my hair. It's a tangible sign that the chemo is doing its thing. As far as "chemo brain" goes, I already had "menopause brain" and let me tell you, the combination ain't pretty! BTW, where do you live in Montreal? I grew up there but got relocated to Ohio when I was half way through high school.
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Hi Pingpong. I'm a West Island girl, in beautiful Pointe Claire. How about you? I see you're now in Northern Ontario ... that's a pretty part of the country.
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YKYACPW you go for a blood test and can point out the one and only vein that will work. (no port)
You sit looking at your medication and can't remember if you have taken it or not.
Other people carry a headache pill or two, you carry a mini pharmacy.
New meds fix problem, but cause 5 more.
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I grew up in Cote St Luc in the 50's and 60's. Got transplanted to Akron Ohio (Dad's work )when I was in my 3rd year of high school and after college migrated up to Cleveland, which is really a wonderful place to live in spite of its troubles. Came back to Canada 10 years ago, first to Belleville Ontario then up to Elliot Lake to retire. It's beautiful up here for sure! (And I'm very thankful to be in Canada right now - I'd be terrified of medical debt if I still lived in the US.)
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Freya ... I'm laughing as I go through your list. Yup, it's all familiar. I also had problems keeping track of my pills, so I bought a lovely divided pill compartment with a.m. and p.m. sections. Even so, when I'm taking my evening pills, I'll see that the a.m. section is empty and have no memory of the event! Folks like you give me great comfort that I'm not alone!
Pingpong - I'm also grateful to be in Canada, with regard to the issue of medical costs. Canada's medical system seems to get a bad rap, but I've been nothing but impressed by the service I've received since I began this journey. I was actually born and raised in Ottawa Ontario, then went to school in Kingston, Toronto and Waterloo. Shortly after graduation I was offered a job in Montreal ... I took it, despite that fact that I didn't speak French and didn't know a soul in Montreal. (Everyone thought I was crazy!!!) I fell in love with the city, then I fell in love with my husband, and I even learned to speak French (with a terrible accent!). And here I am all these years later.
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YKYACPW ...
You go shopping for a pill organizer, and come home with the super deluxe model that has multiple compartments for the 7 days of the week, morning and afternoon, and is oversized to accommodate all of your humongous vitamins and supplements!! (Your husband and children stare at it in disbelief.)
It takes forever to load up, but when it's done, you are ready to roll for another week.
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Abracadabra, I sort of inherited one of those, I must dig it out. It even has a timer so the little compartments open at the set time. I bought it for my MIL, she is in her 90's and was causing herself all sorts of problems with her meds. I spent a couple of hours setting it up for her, triple checking every pill. We went back a couple of hours later, it was empty, all the pills were mixed up in a plastic bag, and half of them you couldn't tell apart.
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Freya - LOL! The best laid plans gone awry! I can just imagine it. Seriously, a timer?! I think I'm experiencing pill organizer envy!
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The flaps on my giant 7-day AM/PM pillbox stopped locking in place after I took so many trips (I don’t use the pillbox at home), and I got tired of scotch taping them down, rubber-banding the pillbox, and putting the whole shebang in a Ziploc to contain “strays.” So I bought a different kind of organizer—nylon, opens like a book, has one side AM and the other PM, with 7 slots on each side. Into each slot fits a little heavy-gauge plastic slider-lock pouch, numbered with the day of the trip. (The pillbox had days of the week printed on each compartment). I bought extra pouches for longer trips. Filling the pill container—whether box or organizer—is the most tedious part of packing for a trip. Can’t have one ready to go at all times (like my travel makeup, hair care, skin care and first aid kits) because my regimen often changes. (Start this drug or supplement, drop that one, yada yada).
At home? Two shot glasses—a bigger one for day pills and a smaller one for night. Every night I fill both and then take the night pills.
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ChiSandy - Oooh, your pill organizer sounds fab! I like the image of you tossing back your meds from the shot glass ... not only efficient, but with an element of chic!
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Wow ... that's hilarious! LOL
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Where do you get one of those "Prescriptions Shots" glasses?
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YKYACPW you put this on you dog
From Cafe Press
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LOL SM. I need that on a hat.
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The shot glasses are on Amazon.com
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YKYACPW getting out of bed or standing up involves some interesting sound effects.
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YKYACPW .... you manage to find a parking spot and make it to the doctor's office on time for your appointment. Then the receptionist can't seem to find you in today's schedule. You slowly realize that today's appointment is with a different doctor, in another location, and you are now horribly late! (And the receptionist thinks you are crazy!) Argh!
Freya ... No kidding about the sound effects. If my car was making as many weird noises as my body is, I'd be afraid to drive it! Hmmm .....
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LOL, Abra, yep been there, done that. Famous last words, "I don't need to write that down, I will remember" HA!
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Then if you DO write it down, you can't find what you wrote it on. 😜
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