The past two weeks and no longer a chemo virgin!

Well the past two weeks have been a roller coaster to say the least!!
I had my port put in on October 20th and woke up the following day feeling like a horse had trampled on my shoulder. It was way more painful than I had expected. By the 22nd there was a large hot red  area spreading down from my collar bone to my breast and I had to see the surgeon. He was concerned that it may be an infection and put me on antibiotics. He also called my oncologist and cancelled my chemo for the following day. Had to stop the antibiotics after two days because of a reaction to them but the wound looked healed. The chemo was rescheduled for October 28th.(21 years to the day since we arrived in Canada.)
Thankfully Graham was over his cold and was able to be with me for the first treatment on October 28th. So at almost 14 years of dodging the chemo bullet since my diagnosis of breast cancer I am no longer a chemo virgin. All went well for the first couple of days but by the third day I felt ill and struggled to “Choose to smile” thankfully I had no vomiting, just a bit of mild nausea.  I did however have what could be described as a few mood swings but luckily they didn't last long and within five days of having the treatment I was feeling so much better.  I had to remind myself to keep smiling and the more I smiled the better I felt even if the smile did not come easily.
Today is eight days post treatment and I am feeling optimistic that I can get through this and that it will be “my miracle” which will put me into a long remission.
The most difficult thing for me right now is the worry about the swine flu pandemic. Because of my compromised immune system I am at high risk of being seriously ill if          I get the flu but I can't have the vaccine until my blood counts are back up which will be
in a  couple of weeks. In the meantime I am trying to minimize my risk of infection by avoiding the malls and restaurants etc. So I feel a bit like I am on house arrest. We have been watching episodes of “Cheers” most evenings to keep us smiling and it works.
I am missing Abby so much so I called her and had a nice chat this evening they are going to visit next week so Mel can style my wig for me.