Pre-chemo selfie, Dr. Miller talking, business cards + holders, Tal + Rosie

December 11, 2023

OK, now I’m home from Mayo! Or at least, I’m staying at my dad’s house for a few days now. I’m not gonna try to chronologically go through the whole day in detail, mainly because I didn’t take excellent notes, but the long story short of it is that I did my first targeted chemo treatment today after I was discharged from the ward I’d been in for the last week. That’s also WHY I haven’t been posting very regularly. I think the first photo I have from today is actually of a lady named Dr. Miller talking about some things while I was still staying in Methodist. Forget exactly what she communicated tbh. This morning, I also took a walk with mom, and during that walk I really realized that my right leg cannot push off the ground at all. It’s more than just “not being able to stand up on tip toes,” which is also true. This actually makes my gait quite uneven, and we were just trying to decide on the words to use to describe my leg and walking situation currently. 

Today, first, I got some bladder issues sorted out, and then I was discharged from Eisenberg, the building I’ve spent the last week living in, which has been quite useful. After that, we drove over to St. Mary’s and parked and went in to get my first ever round of intra-arterial chemo. I think it was focused on my spine, around the L2 and L3 vertebrae. Then, Papa drove me home to Minneapolis. During that ride, I was able to tell him that the doctor who did my procedure, Dr. Brinjikji (just found the spelling of his name online for the first time lol). Anyways, Dr. Brinjikji told me that I was his favorite patient so far. That’s relevant because I was NOT put to sleep for the procedure. Instead, I was able to talk to the doctors for most of the time, and I remember having a wonderful conversation with a nurse named Carol, and also decent convo with one named Kari. I also told Papa that I obviously had failed to take a single note during the time I talked to Carol, bcause I was on the operating room table and all, and he said that it must be quite hard to take notes while you’re being injected with chemo. 

Anyways, coming back from the chemo, I made the important decision to stop at McDonald’s to get a 12g fat hamburger to take my meds with. I did that, taking the pills after I ate most of the cheeseburger, at 5pm. I also learned that the fat in the small strawberry milkshake I got was like 7g, which actually would have brought me over 14g total. So as a result, I didn’t finish it til I was home, at which point it was 7pm, so two hours after the meds. It’s cool how that kind of thing can end up working out pretty well, even when you don’t plan it very much.

The other part of our story has to do with the package that Papa and I picked up when we stopped over at my apartment on the way to his house after Mayo. I was able to receive my order of 200 new business cards, which is more than I’ve ever ordered before from that site, Moo, in one shipment. In these, I’ve included several pictures from Heidi and Jorge’s wedding, and also quite a few from the different plays I’ve shot recently, including Eurydice, Book Club and Robin Hood. Honestly just being able to get NEW business cards that I can show to people and say, “choose your favorite photo,” is a HUGE part of my personality. The things I’m holding in my right hand in the pic are some of the new business card holders that Jodi got me, and I’ve filled two or three of the holders up already. I think there are eight in total. 

The last pic I have is one of Talia and Rosie on the bed, with Rosie yawning. Talia came back home at like 8:45pm tonight her job at Half Price Books. I told her all about my adventure with the intra-arterial chemo, and my success with the business cards. Oh, and the other irrelevant yet cool thing is that I sent another high school freind, Liza, a short video that included me flipping over my business card that had Heidi getting married on the back of it, since I was explaining to her how my cards worked.