If You Can Take It You Can Make It

Dane and I went to the movie on Saturday night because I was getting the 'inside headache'.  You know that feeling you get when you've been cooped up in the house for way too long and you are just itching to get out.  We call that feeling the 'inside headache' at our house.  I had the inside headache because I was stuck at home sick for 3 days.  I was anticipating feeling yucky the day after chemotherapy, but surprisingly I woke up Tuesday morning feeling fine.  I went to work just like a good little girl.  That afternoon I went to the cancer center to get a Neulasta injection.  Neulasta is a white blood cell booster the doctor prescribed to counteract the effects of chemotherapy.  It is a simple shot to the stomach.  The thing about cancer that I am quickly realizing is that every medication has negative side effects.  For example, chemotherapy is supposed to increase my chance of living cancer free, but the toxins they put in my body are trying to kill me.  They lower my white blood cell count, which lowers my immune system, which decreases my ability to fight off common sickness like the cold and flu.  So in order to keep me from getting a life threatening illness while undergoing chemotherapy treatment the nurse gave me a shot of Neulasta, but of course the Neulasta has its own sets of side effects.  The main side effects are achey bones and flu-like symptoms.  That's right you heard me...flu-like symptoms.  So in order for me to keep from getting the flu I get injected with medicine that makes me feel like I have the flu.  How messed up is that?  So I got the shot on Tuesday afternoon and by Wednesday afternoon I was starting to feel like I had the flu.  I stayed home from work on Thursday and Friday. I was still feeling yucky on Saturday, but my determination to cure the inside headache overrode my flu-like symptoms.  So, we got a babysitter and went to see the movie Unbroken.  I would highly recommend the movie.  It helped me to realize that my life is a piece of cake...breast cancer and all.  Spoiler Alert! (not really, cuz I'm not revealing anymore then the previews) The man in this movie endured an airplane crash, many days at sea, and time as a prisoner of war in a Japanese prison camp during World War II.  The motto that kept him going was, "If you can take it then you can make it."  I like that motto, and I think I will adopt it during this little trial of mine.  I just have to take it in order to make it.  I don't need to have the best attitude all of the time, and it is okay if I have hard days where I feel crummy.  As long as I don't give up then I will make it.  So cancer, bring it on.  I can take it.