It's not the hand you are dealt, but how you play your cards.
"The only sure thing about my day is that it changes all the time."
I started radiation therapy on April 18th and ended on May 29, 2003 - Monday through Friday for 28 days. I had to psych myself up because most days I was nauseous and I had to put in a mouth guard, tongue depressor, and a mask would hold my head in place. A lot of the time I got sick doing all of this. I had to stay very still for about 20 minutes. I listened to the sound track of My Best Friends Wedding because it helped me forget where I was.
I have a tube that was placed in my chest called a central line. This tube is threaded into one of my big veins in my chest and stops right above my heart. This is how they draw my blood, give my chemotherapy and other medicines without having to poke me with needles.
Twice a week I go to the oncology clinic at Lucille Salter Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford (LPCH) to get my blood drawn. They check my blood counts and look at a bunch of things but especially my red blood cells (RBC), platelets (PLTS) and white blood cells (WBC).
"The plan is for me to receive chemotherapy once a week for a year. I started April 11, 2003. "
I get two kinds of treatment. The first kind of chemotherapy is given to me at the doctor’s office once a week through my central line (they give me a drug called Vincristine). The second kind of chemo is given to me in the hospital every 3 weeks (Vincristine, Actinomycin-D, Cyclophosphamide). I go to the hospital because this chemo is very strong. Although the chemotherapy kills the cancer, it is very hard on my body. I get very sick and need IV fluids to help flush out the medicine after it is used.
So what do I think about all this? The chemotherapy and radiation therapy helps to kill my cancer but since the treatment is so strong, it affects my body in other ways. The first thing that happened is that I lost all my hair on my head. I also lost my appetite and I get sick and nauseous all the time and I do not like to eat too much. All the foods that I like taste very different from the way they used to or don’t have any taste at all. All of these things are making me lose weight. I also don’t have very much energy because a lot of the strength in my body is going to replace the good cells that are killed along with the bad cancer cells.
One of the things that I learned is that whatever your life feels like, you should always be thankful for the little things. I would be so happy to be able to run across the playground at full speed and not be tired. I would love to eat my favorite pepperoni pizza and wish that it tasted the way that it used to. The other thing that I learned is that you should enjoy the things in life that are important to you because you never know if you will be able to do them tomorrow.
