My Chemo Nurses & Maybe Even My Oncologist Knows Now.

So I tried posting this two weeks ago after my first chemo session but they were switching formats here and went to the one I posted on and then came back to this one and I lost my post. So here I go again with it.

So at my first round of chemo I wore blue nail polish. I had planed to wear matching heart ear rings but was so intent on getting there I forgot. The blue is for Colon Cancer Awareness. So I took a picture to post on their facebook page and will post it here in the beauty section as a running count down. I plan to change the color of my nails each time. So my chemo nurse had came over to inject my port and get my drugs started. After checking on me several times and then had to start the final drug she broke down and asked why the nail polish. I told her that I was a transgendered, she looked funny at me and I said I was a cross dresser. She looked kind of shocked for a moment because I had chemo 16 months earlier and I didn't even come close to showing that I had a fem side other than the pony tail I had on the first 2 sessions. (My hair started coming out more than I liked so I cut the pony tail and kept it.) So I told her that seeing that the average expectancy of a stage 4 person is like 30 months, some have been living longer though, I wasn't going to keep myself hid. So I told her that at the end of the chemo, sometime in February, I was going all out and coming dressed. She suggested that it might be good to do it at Halloween so if there were those that didn't care for a CD in the room I had an excuse and I agreed. So after she went to the nurses station I noticed that the nurses were looking my way and even my oncologist was there looking over at me. So they know big deal. Apathy is the great liberator!

So today was my second round of chemo and I wore plum nail polish for the nurses that wore plum tops in the infusion room.

You go girl!! Keep that chin up and stride forward!! I am a nurse and I am proud of your attitude girl!! Special hugs!! Lana Mae

You see the light at the end of the tunnel. Please do what you want to do, not what they would like to see. This is all about you and no one else. Congratulations and I do wish you the best of luck. The side effects of prostate cancer treatment got me started on this "at that time undiscovered" side of my life. Keep us posted and I can't wait to see your rainbow of colored nails. Maybe for the last treatment you can do the LGBT rainbow colors. Just a thought.

Good luck with treatment and enjoy being yourself!

Good luck with the treatment and do live like you want to. Good going on the second visit with the plum nails.

Hope all goes well with the treatment , and you go girl. Good for you, own it and live it. You should be very proud of yourself.

I hope your treatment goes well!!

Best wishes to you Cheryl! We're wonderful people and wonderful people have karma on our side, you're going to be fine!

I know it sucks but based on personal experience, NO ONE is judging you there!

Good for you! I had 2 cancers and a spinal infection, and decided life was too short myself.

Great job being you! Live long and prosper!

You do you, girl!
It's not for others to judge in a chemo room anyhow.

I mean can you imagine being the person that freaks on a chemo patient because of how they're dressed? I'm sure such a donkey must exist in the world, but I suspect you're unlikely to encounter them :-)

Cheryl Anne,
Best wishes and hugs to you. I've only met nice people in oncology waiting rooms. Cancer is a great equalizer - we all want for each other what we hope for ourselves: Hope, dignity and time. At the clinic where I had radiation treatments, they had you ring a bell when you completed a round of treatments. Whenever that bell rang everyone was on their feet cheering. Please post when you finish this round so we can all cheer for you!

Therese