finally, I start

So.. I have been meaning to start a blog for over a month now, but life has been hectic (as most of you know).. By the way I apologize from my Turkish family and friends that I will be writing in English, because y'all can read and understand English, but none of my American friends can read Turkish AND I do not want to write two blogs at once..

So first an update: On Monday (April 4th) I had my port put in. For those of you who don't know what it is: It is basically a plastic/silicon half-sphere that gets inserted on my chest - right below my right collarbone. It is attached to a long (about 20 cm - I will write in English, but please do not make me use inches :) ), tube which is inserted into one of my big veins. The way the surgeon explained it is as follows: Because the drugs that they will give you is so toxic to your veins, we want them to go where the flow rate is high, so they get distributed into your body quickly and do not sit in one area for a long time. Plus, that half spherical silicon will allow them to put the needle in with not too much pain (please be assured, that silicon thing is UNDER my skin, so they will puncture the skin everytime they put the needle in for the infusion). Plus it may have the perk that I may not have to be double poked because the blood that they need to draw before each chemo can be taken out from the same spot, yaaaay! :)

Today I have an appointment with the oncologist nurse, then with my oncologist, and then I will have an echo cardiogram taken. Because, as the oncologist put it: one of the drugs that I will be given is toxic to my heart, so they want to see the baseline function and will be able to compare it during the treatment and see how much of my heart function I might lose. Oh, well..

Then tomorrow is the big day! I will start with the first of 12 sessions of Taxol! once a week, twelve weeks.. For the scientist geek friends of mine Taxol is a microtubule inhibitor, so it will inhibit any dividing cells from dividing, and maybe even convince them to commit suicide (apoptosis). It is not supposed too bad in terms of side effects. It is very likely that I will lose my hair (and that is hair ALL over my body - not just my head like my students thought), and my blood counts may go a little down but hopefully not too much. Also I am not supposed to feel so bad that I will have to spend days in bed.

Anyway I better stop here, gotto go to a lecture, I will try to continue later and hopefully fill in the gaps.. It is a BEAUTIFUL day outside..