Open Mind, Strong Body, Beautiful Soul by Coco Dorsey
January 31, 2007 - visit with Brad Baltz and put on effexor
February 1, 2007 - hat and scarf party at ciao baci
This was a great idea to celebrate my new baldness! My girlfriends put together an evening of cheese and wine...and hats....and scarves...some funny, some serious....it began snowing....it was beautiful...I felt beautiful...I had strength, courage, a bald head....i was happy...weightless and almost floating...these important women in my life were all celebrating me....and the snow...wow! God performing for us all!
February 7, 2007 - 3rd chemotherapy
As I was sitting in the waiting room, somebody asked me if I was in fact..well...me...Yes I am coco I told him...As I stared at this man, I realized those familiar eyes and voice were those of an old, dear friend....david eddington....david eddington...I'll be damned! I had not seen david in over a year....I had heard via the watercooler at work, that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer... just a month before my own twist of fate.... And he was in awful shape.....David and I had lived next door to one another in our younger years...We would have parties together and keep each other's animals when one of us would leave town for a weekend trip....we celebrated life back then each afternoon after work with a cold lite beer on our stoop we shared....his girlfriend then...wife in later years, keena ...became one of my nearest and dearest as well....We watched each other's backs back then....even attended each other's weddings....We had remained slightly in touch throughout the years...He and keena always made keith and me laugh....they were a hoot...good old country kids from warren, Arkansas...wonderful people....and here he was in the same oncological office as me...how did we get here? We discussed this while we waited....deciding this day would be the first of many....many treatments and appointments we would make together.... My renewed friendship with David was my next life-changing, God-given attribute in my struggle for survival....One that, if I could change, I would....If I had one wish throughout my entire journey it would be to give david life....
February 14, 2007 - visit with Brad Baltz
February 21, 2007 - 4th and last adriamycin and cytoxan chemotherapy treatments
Thank god this part is over! The migraines are terrible! I am weak! I am tired! Brad is giving me the month off....no chemo for 4 weeks! I get to celebrate my birthday...chemical- free, chemo-free! Before I start the next regimen...one chemo treatment each week for 12 weeks...
February 28, 2007 - visit with Brad Baltz - did BRCA - 1, BRCA-2 tests
I think, while deciding together, (Brad and me, keith and my parents) whether or not to do the genetic testing, was when my real connection was formed between me and my oncologist....This is when my faith became immense in my doctor, my friend, dr. brad baltz...I never knew of such trust...a trust unlike any other...an uncanny ability to believe in someone else...and their genius....after all, a doctor is human....doctors make mistakes...every day...like the rest of us....but we discussed the genetic testing issue at length....i gave it to him...he could take how I felt and combine it with his knowledge of these tests, and the pandora's box the results would open...if, in fact, my cancer was one of heredity. This was a grueling decision for him, I believe...The two of us worked through the result possibilities and what they might possibly mean for my future....and the futures of my children and their children, my nephews, my brothers, my parents... We bit the bullet....I signed away my life on the dotted line....or five of them....Tonya in the lab drew my blood...put it in her special envelope which would later be picked up by FedEx and shipped to a lab in California....
