Tests / Herman / Wigs

This morning was another day spent at Legacy Hospital in NW Portland and, as far as places to be go, this is a pretty cool part of town. Kim's day began with an echocardiogram at 9:00 AM. With the lights out and lying down, Kim had a pretty easy go of it. The machine showed really cool colors as the sound waves reflected back images of her heart. Hard to believe a heart that big can fit on a display monitor. Following that easy test we traversed the many walkways above the streets between medical buildings though we ended up below ground in the Good Samaritan Breast Center for the BSGI. The Breast Center is a really nice place, peaceful and with coffee and tea. As has been the case with every office so far, such wonderfully empathetic staff.


I noticed that the women in this waiting room, despite their diversity, had one thing in common, strength. Every patient here had an air of fortitude and resilience. I'm betting that years of cancer advocacy have given these women the knowledge to face this disease with real vigor. I was pleased to see this. OK, so I need to correct something here, I've said women a lot in reference to the Breast Center and one of the patients I saw today was a man. Herman is an elderly man, with taut suspenders clipped to his trousers, and the air of man from the country. One percent of breast cancer cases are men and I'd bet there still remains a social stigma about it where he comes from. But Herman, nope, pleasant, courteous, and cheerful. His wife, damn it, she was cute as could be. I hope to see Herman again.

Now, we'd hustled down here because my watch showed we had only a few minutes to spare but after checking in and sitting down I realized I was looking at the minute and second hand not hour and minute hand so we had almost an hour to hang out. Guess what, they bumped up her appointment time. I couldn't go in for this test, (the Breast Specific Gamma Imaging), so I gave Kim a smooch and walked a few blocks back to my old office, said hello to some friends, visited the fine folks at The Athletic, and had some coffee at The Commissary Cafe where Andrew works. Kim exited the test an hour later and was looking for me but I was still yapping away at the cafe. She sent me a note and dropped by to grab a salad for lunch so I got a bonus smooch before we both returned to work for the day.

Kim got home around five o'clock and helped the boys pack for their trip to Denver on Friday. I hustled home as well to meet briefly with Kristen and Kim as Kristen brought by even more resources for Kim to consider. Chief among them today, wigs.

Now Kim has spent some time on the subject of hair loss and possible therapies to offset it. We've both looked into cold caps and any number of ice therapies to be worn during chemotherapy as there is some evidence that it can reduce or prevent hair loss. We talked about it a lot. I mentioned to Kim that I wanted her full attention on the problem and not giving energy away to symptoms. She agreed and then decided that since no one she spoke with during her process had first hand knowledge of these therapies that she'd forego the experiment. We did have some great conversations with friends who have experience with this but Kim made the final call that the distraction would be too much.

I had to leave the meeting early to take Andrew to his oil painting class but Jason was eager to help Kim look through wig samples. (While I was out waiting for Andrew I grabbed some dinner and bumped into two friends. Felt good to get those hugs and to bring home the ones they sent for Kim.) So I'm home now and there's a wig box on the dresser. Jason apparently didn't like the super-blonde style or the dark brunette so Kim's first wig will likely look similar to her hair now. But Kim has told me that she may try some wyld stylez* and that no one in Portland is even going to notice because half this town has colored hair.

Initial results on tests today do not reveal anything further than what we already know so we keep to our plan. Chest port goes in on the 9th, chemotherapy on the 11th.

We are kid free for the next six days. Let's ride some bikes and go to the movies.

We had a good day today so I'll ask that you send some thoughts to Herman tonight.

-CD


*my phrase, not hers