Holidays

It's been awhile since I've written. The holidays were just too much... a swirl of activity. My sister was home for 2 weeks and it was great seeing her. I can't wait until I can go visit her in Seattle.

I had chemo on my birthday (Dec. 13th) so that sucked but the next day my friend Erasto threw me a little dinner/barbecue so that was nice. The following week I had surgery to put in a port in my chest. It is suppose to make chemo treatment easier. It's hard to describe but I found this online:

"The port is about the size of a quarter, only thicker, and will show only as a bump underneath the skin. There are several benefits to having a port:

-No need to find a vein every time you receive chemo. A special needle fits right into the port, so all you feel is the stick—not the poking, prodding, and false tries in your arm.

-The medication goes right into the main blood supply entering the heart, so it can be sent quickly and efficiently to all parts of the body.

-Some types of chemotherapy can be very uncomfortable if injected into a vein just under your skin. The port avoids this potential discomfort. "

Port inserted in vein for chemotherapy

A Port
B Catheter [tubing]
C Subclavian vein
D Superior Vena cava
E Pulmonary vein
F Aorta
G Heart

They used the port on the 27th and it really was easier. It's uncomfortable sometimes but I do prefer it to nothing at all or the PICC line. Now I wish I'd had it since the beginning.

Christmas was fun. I played dominos with my brothers for hours. We opened our presents late Christmas Eve. I've realized that Latinos open their presents Xmas Eve but we all think it's just our family who does that. We all seem to do that. But how did that tradition start because it crosses country lines?

Anyways, I spent New Year's with my boyfriend and my sister at her boyfriend's sister's house, lol. It was alot of fun, listening to alot of Prince.

I saw Eragon and The Good Shepherd. I was really disappointed with Eragon. I expected something more along the lines of Lord of the Rings-good and it was bad. Bad acting, bad special effects, bad adaptation from the book. The Good Shepherd was great though, I loved it. I wonder sometimes, really, who controls the world's events? It's the type of movie that makes conspiracy theories seem not that outrageous and reminds me that most of us (almost all of us) live in a state of ignorant bliss.... or stupor. I also saw Dreamgirls which was great, the female Ray. Still on the list: Volver, The Holiday, and The Queen.

Among my favorite gifts: Grey's Anatomy Season 2, LOTS of movie money, a Sephora gift card, tickets to Wicked(!), Chanel sunglasses, perfumes, the chocolate phone from Verizon, sweats (I practically live in them nowadays), and a framed picture of flowers. Basically people listened well, lol.

This weekend I went to Ensenada, Mexico for Erasto's birthday and had such a great time. Clay took me to the best place to get ceviche and it was some of the best ceviche I'd ever had. Overall it's been a great month.

Back to chemo on Wed....