Ommaya: basically a port for your brain and spinal cord. My type of leukemia (ALL with Philadelphia chromosome) can and did travel to my spinal cord. I take Sprycel for system wide prevention and Methotrexate to my spinal cord.I will receive chemo twice a week for a month, then once a month for a year. I haven’t noticed much yet... mostly just being a little tired a couple of hours later and a small headache. No complaints coming from this side though, I still get to work and workout and do all the things I need to do. This is MUCH better than being stuck in a hospital for months. #septua
selfportrait
Reflections
This self portrait thing is hard, I mean... just sitting in front of the camera is easy. Making it meaningful is the hard part. Documenting yourself is hard as well, I'm constantly reminding myself to shoot everything... even the mundane. This is my first time turning the camera on myself and it is very eye opening. Self portraits seem to be helping me find out more of who I am and what I can achieve.
Let's face it, there is a possibility that Leukemia can take me. I'm not being negative, that is my reality. Of course I'm doing very, very well with chemo therapy and I feel fantastic... but the reality of things is no matter how awesome I feel, I have cancer. I'm not sad, I'm not depressed... I feel redirected and decisively more purposeful. Just because I realize I can die from Leukemia doesn't mean I'm going to go into the night peacefully... because I won't.
My ommaya and I
My ommaya and I... It has taken me a while to get use to this thing on the top of my head. People staring at it like a little titty on my head didn’t help, but I understand. My “sad little unicorn horn”. I know I joked about it when I first had it implanted and seemed ok with it... I wasn’t. But that’s what I do... joke about things that make me uncomfortable... that’s my coping mechanism. I joke and make light of things until I actually am ok with them and that leads me to this thing. I’m FINALLY ok with it. We’ve become good friends. People can stare, question and ask... it’s cool. It is part of this whole journey.
