Cancer School

The Cancer Institute offers classes and education on every step of the process. This education starts with a volunteer led tour of the facility so you can find your way through the myriad of clinics, treatment areas and other services such as the wig shop. People are always sitting on the couches waiting for their tour along side of the reception desk where I checked in for my appointments after flashing my red ‘club card.’ I looked at their faces and they shared the same look of being pole axed. However I could not bear to look at the young mothers with babies in stollers.

There was quite a big class for chemo school, and mainly people older than 70 years old. I was told that, unless I went chemo school, and naturally I did not want to go, I would not get chemo. The nurse practitioner walked us through the process for chemo, and it was helpful to know what was going to happen. At the class there was an older man who attended all alone. My mini medical pitbull J was with me taking copious notes. He said in the class, “They have been telling me all this stuff about cancer and that I need chemo. I don’t know what they are talking about and what cancer is this?” The nurse practitioner told the man to wait after class and he would help him find some answers. Talk about floating alone in a scarey ocean.

At the rehabilitation class I attended I heard information that I had not learned before. Women gain between 10 – 30 pounds during breast cancer treatment. There is no clear information why exactly this takes place but it is a combination of emotion, chemicals and drugs and the body’s reaction to the assault it faces. Or maybe it is the reduced activity that is normal reaction to feeling poorly. A volunteer told the group that after a year, she found that the weight had gradually been lost.

Cancer related related fatigue is another side effect of cancer treatment. Some people report levels of fatigue to the extent that they are exhausted after simple daily activities like tooth brushing or dressing. Whatever the level experienced, the only way the fatigue begins to dissipate is through exercise. One woman told me that hearing that was about the most debilitating information she had heard. She said, “Imagine being told to exercise when you are experiencing the worst case of flu you have ever had?”

I couldn’t exercise to the extent that I liked to do. I complained to the nurse practitioner and the doctor that after my hour walk in the morning with my friend, I could not weight train or run. The doctor and the nurse practitioner literally laughed in my face. Luckily I found their reaction funny.

The other lingering effect of chemo was on my nails. My finger nails were affected first and then my toes started to show the effects. The nails become ridged, with pits and black lines. Chemo ended in September and by February my finger nails were clear fo black lines and ridges. I needed to trim my nails back nearly to the quick because, after the lightest contact, they would disintegrate like rotten rubber right off the finger tips.

My toe nails were simply grotesque. There was a kind of horrific thrill to look at them. I wanted to share this part of my journey with my daughters but they drew the line at this. Finally by February I could glimpse normal nail growth at the base the toe nails but it was a slow process. And, also a helpful reminder that I really did have cancer and I went through 7 months of treatment.

I understood the purpose of chemo was to kill free floating guerilla cancer cells in my system. It also gave me the best complexion I have ever had. Not something I recommend of course, but buh bye rosacea. I got many compliments on how great my skin looked. "Oh, thanks." I’d say modestly, "but I owe it all to A/C." (The chemicals in my chemo cocktail.)

The other aspect of chemo is all and I mean all of the body hair vaporizes…..pfft…gone. Of course the pubes were nekkid and sad but I was interested to discover the importance of nose hair. Bend over to tie the shoes without it, and drips ahoy!