Some Side Effects

Chemo is still a very nonspecific cancer treatment, meaning for every cancerous lymph cell it kills, healthy cells are destructed as well. Minus most of my white blood cells I'm very vulnerable to infection, and nearly powerless to combat it once it sets in. For me this means vigilance is essential, and as I fight the good fight I've had to miss out on some of life's simpler pleasures.

The first of these was a Google volunteer trip to a farm, where my lucky friends got to play with lambs and puppies. I was so preoccupied with missing the trip, though, that I had a weird but pretty cool dream about a farm that may have made up for missing the real-life farm. The second minor treat I'll be passing up for the next few months is sushi (no raw foods, too many bacteria). Don't rub it in.

Mostly, though, my susceptibility to infection has just made me a lot more annoying. I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize if I recently sneak-attacked you with Purell. There is now Purell everywhere in my house, and I even have a handy mini-Purell that conveniently fastens to my belt loop. My dad says I can wear this should I ever want to enter a dork contest. Vigilance!

Another ancillary of chemo is that I'm super sensitive to sun. You would think that, given my alabaster complexion, this would be a burden, but it's actually turned out to be one of the few and far between perks of chemo, a. because it gave me an excuse to buy a large, eccentric but attractive straw hat, and b. because people keep complimenting me on my tan!