Renee Gentzel

I love bright, shiny new experiences. I love traveling to new places, seeing new sights, and doing new things. I’ve lived all over the country, hiked the Rocky mountains and sailed on seas, surfed on the coast of Hawaii, enjoyed cuisine from all types of cultures, and even, thanks to a gift from friends back on my 30th birthday, experienced flying on a trapeze. Highly recommend them all. So, New Year’s Day is a favorite time of year for me, as it is the embodiment of novelty.

Novelty has been one of many silver linings for my cancer journey – I’ve been able to meet wonderful doctors, experience a new, supportive community on Colontown.org, and, I have to say, if you have to have chemo, the new Asplundh Cancer Pavilion at Willow Grove is the place to do it. If they added manicure/pedicure services, you’d think you were at an upscale salon instead of a chemo center. Such a beautiful place; the atrium is pictured below. UPDATE: They ARE planning on adding manis/ pedis/ massage/ acupuncture services!

Tomorrow, I have my third round of chemo; the fasting (96 hours, starting 48 hrs before infusion time) and icing (2.5 hrs during OX infusion) have worked wonders for minimizing side effects from my previous rounds. I’ve only had slight first bite reactions and some throat soreness. Turns out, my docs recommended sticking with FOLFOX and not adding the avastin, as we may want to explore a surgical option for the removal of the lymph nodes in the near future.