and can we talk about how cute kitty is?

has anyone ever heard of a dog trimming a human's finger nails?

well. kitty is the best.

eric was cutting his finger nails the other night and kitty seemed very interested in the process. so eric, half way done, let her check it out. and she started, very gently, to pull on a piece of his finger nail with her teeth...until a sliver of his nail came off. then she waited for him to start to cut another nail and then, again very gently, started to pull on the piece of nail with her little front teeth until the sliver of his nail came off. all proud of herself for grooming her owner.

i know many people would keep this piece of information private...but...i just think kitty is the cutest and smartest dog i've ever seen in my life.

let's talk about friendship...

i don't think anyone would ever think to define a good friend as someone who would travel two thirds of the way across the country with a ceramic 10x18 inch pan as carry-on. but i think you all might change your mind when you hear this story.

i lived at 1050 oak st in san francisco with hardy and emily for about 3 years. we established this tradition of family dinner. family dinner was always the same. homemade mac and cheese made with real vermont cheddar. i can't really describe how important family dinner was for us. it just tastes so good. it was our little tradition. hardy was always in charge of making the cheese mixture. i was always in charge of grating the cheese. somehow emily got out of most of the preparation. and we always had awesome leftovers to bring to work the next day. ti was just so good that i can't put it into words. (maybe hardy, emily, gretchen, or the miller can.)

so. fast forward 6 years.

hardy buys a ticket to come to denver from nyc to visit her friend who has cancer. she offers to make me family dinner. i cry reading her email. emily cries when hardy tells her i cried.

then hardy comes to denver. and she brings a block of vermont cheddar - because she couldn't be sure that denver would have vermont cheddar and it has to be from vermont. and she brings her own box of medium pasta shells. AND she brings her own ceramic pan...that i swear weighed 20 pounds...picture her on the subway, on the train, on the shuttle to newark, on the plane. for family dinner. for me. it's killer.

oh. and. she brought a dozen brooklyn bagels.

chemo camp

thursday october 11th was my 2nd chemo.

eric took the day off to come with me. i really wasn't looking forward to the 2nd chemo. i'd heard people say the 2nd is the worst because you already know what you're up against. and it was definitely different to know where to do, to know the set up, to recognize the nurses...but also to know what they were going to put in me and how i was going to feel...not so cool. but it was nice to have eric there.

after all of the injections we left to go pick up eric's mom, sandy, at the airport. she had planned to come stay with us for 6 days of "chemo camp." we had all this stuff planned - learning how to use the sewing machine, starting cool projects, etc. and in the end, we didn't do any of them! i don't even know how it happened. somehow we stayed busy. (i think kitty, the red sox, and football were probably the culprits.)

but the sweetest thing during sandy's visit was on monday she took me to get my very first facial at this fancy spa in cherry creek. it was 90 minutes of heaven. the woman who did the facial was so sweet. she came into the room and said she was so glad we met. her mother had breast cancer 5 years ago and her friend was diagnosed 8 months ago...she was very excited to be helping me through chemo. (it didn't hurt that she thought i was 27.)

so i lay on a comfortable massage-like table for 90 minutes while she massaged my face, my shoulders, my neck, my arms, my feet. beautifully smelling oils, calming hot towels. it was beautiful.

and the next day sandy left! i had thought 6 days would be enough time...but it turns out we didn't have any time to do all the things we'd planned for chemo camp. :(

bad blogger

i know i know.

after the last chemo i just felt pretty tired. and since then, i haven't really been able to motivate myself to put in a new entry. so. here goes. i'll go start from 2 weeks ago and go forward.

i've been remiss

another month has passed and i didn't put out a reminder to do your self breast exams.

DO THEM!

it's been 3 1/2 months since my diagnosis. you should've done 3 already!! i know it's not prevention...but it could really make a difference.

AND...

with kaiser i can look at all of my test results online.

all of my blood work from the day before chemo - white blood cells, red blood cells, calcium, everything - is absolutely normal. even for a normal person! turns out my body does know how to heal itself.

round 2

hi everyone.
thank you for all your emails, your calls, your comments in the last few days.

i am doing FINE.

yesterday was a lot less traumatizing than the first round. no tears this time. eric was with me. we had a nice nurse. it lasted about 2 and half hours. we met with the dr. who said that things, from my blood work, seem great. it seem very healthy and seem to be dealing with the chemo very well.

so. in all. it's good news.

and today i'm feeling fine. i didn't sleep as well as normal last night. and i felt a bit of weird nausea. but this morning i'm feeling good. eating. drinking tea. hanging out. i have energy. and things are good. we'll see as time progresses. but i'm really feeling pretty good.

xoxo