This morning Joyce and I had a visit from the home health nurse. She came to make sure I was comfortable cleaning and flushing the catheter. This is required to be done once per week. For the weeks I have treatment, the chemo nurses do this for me. On the off weeks, I, or someone who loves me, gets to do it. On her last visit, the nurse demonstrated the process. This week I had to do it myself. The cleaning and bandaging is no big deal since I do the daily dressing changes anyway; however, it is kind of freaky to inject the saline solution and feel the coolness going straight into my chest. When I was done with the whole process, the nurse voluntarily offered me an "A+" for my efforts. For those of you who know me well, you know how tragic anything less could have been!

While going through chemo it is important to avoid crowds and germs. I have cutback on my social life a bit and am paying attention to this warning. The last thing I want is to get sick or get an infection and have this take me off schedule for treatment. So bored this weekend, I cleaned out my entire garage, had my tree trimmed, and my garden and patio cleaned out. Who knew that breast cancer would force me to be domestically productive? Really, isn't there a stylish, yet germ-free, shopping mall I could be visiting? A hip, yet sterile, cultural event I could frequent? A Southern California aseptic attraction I could enjoy? Gee, I sure hope I feel good after treatment number two this week so I can clean my closets and repaper my pantry shelves!