August 30th, 2007.

I wake up in a quiet room at the very end of the cancer floor... a nurse comes in and says they need that room and they will be moving me one room over.. I am nervous because I don't want a roommate and when I get into the room I am alone and it's very quiet.. I am happy. I order something to eat but food has lost it's appeal completely..

Thursday is a down day. I don't have any surgeries or tests.. But I'm still on strong pain meds so... I sleep on and off all day...

August 31st, 2007

Friday I wake up hungry again but am informed that I will have a PET scan and go to the Hulston Cancer Center for MAPPING (CT scans).. So.. NO FOOD FOR ME!! Around 8am a wheelchair arrives and I am wheeled ACROSS the walkover to the Hulston Center. They do CT scans on me.. I get to drink contrast dye.. they put it in my IV.. and then they do a Dye enema... (FUN)... when done.. they TATTOO me... I get 3 tattoos.. one on each thigh and one just below my bikini line... that way when they bring me in to radiation they will have a map to go by... a man wheels me back to my hospital room... around 1:30pm a woman in an EMT uniform comes in... she says she there to pick me up to take me to the Martin Center for a PET scan... she wheels me out on a hospital bed.. HAHAH!! We begin talking and I find out she likes shoes.. (big surprise) and I sell shoes on my website... we begin talking styles and brands... and as opens the door to the ambulance.. I realize there's a TEAM of women.. OMG... a dream come true.. HAHA!! We talk shoes... clothes and purses all the way to the Martin Center... Best ambulance drive ever...

I find out that a PET scan involves having RADIOACTIVE SUGAR shot into your artery!! OMG!!! Okay... then you have to lay still for 45 minutes so your body is completely relaxed because the radioactive sugars are attracted to the most active tissue in your body... and so you need to have a quiet time so the radioactive sugars can work properly..

PET scan is over... a man shows up to wheel me out.. when he opens the doors to the ambulance I am disappointed that my GAL-PAL EMTs are not in there... they are all men and BORING... they are all BUFF and think they are all THAT... OMG.. I hate men who think they are "GOD'S GIFT TO WOMEN"... or who take their job TOO SERIOUSLY.. We ride back to the hospital in silence.. :-(

It's getting close to dinner time.. I haven't had anything to eat since dinner last night.. that I threw up... the nurse comes in and says... they are going to start chemo and radiation TONIGHT... OMG!!! Am I ready for this... (like I have a choice)... So... I guess no dinner... 2 nurses come into my room dressed in HAZ-MAT looking uniforms... and tell my they are going to start a 20 minute Mitomycin push... they put that in your artery.. one nurse will watch the clock and one nurse will do the push watching my artery the entire time. One drop of the Mitomycin on your skin or outside the artery... acts like ACID and begins immediately eating away at you... killing everything it touches... (hence the HAZ-MAT uniforms)... As soon as the Mitomycin push is over they hook me up to a bag of F5U (chemo) that will drip into my veins for 96 hours... the minute the chemo bag is attached to my IV... a man comes into the room with a wheel chair and says it's time to take me to the Hulston Center for my first radiation treatment... DEEP BREATH!!!

Well my 1st radiation treatment is over and the chemo is dripping in to my vein.. my colo-rectal surgeon comes in and checks me... she says that another doctor in her group is in surgery all day tomorrow and has time to put a port in... just as she's telling me this... in walks my chemo oncologist.. Dr Ellis... they discuss a PORT... and then next thing you know it is decided that I will get a port TOMORROW (Sept 1st, 2007)... So I am informed I can order something to eat... now because I won't be able to eat after midnight again!!

Laying in my hospital bed for the 3rd night... I begin to wonder when I will get out of the hospital... when will I be able to eat again... then I begin to fall asleep because the pain meds are strong and the room is quiet! Thank goodness for Dr Ellis... he requested a private room for me! I decide I'd better order food but when it comes I am not hungry... I try to force it down and I gag.. I usually love to eat.. I love food and the special kitchen for the cancer patients makes really good food but I am sick to my stomach (Big surprise eh!) ... and I leave most of the food on my tray!

I begin to watch TV because there's not much else I can do... there are not a lot of channels so I begin to watch BRAVO... and they are running back to back episodes of TOP CHEF... Food shows become like PORN... for me... I watch them and LUST after every thing I see to eat!!