Part 8
"Blee-oh-my-a-son"

It is now week two. Unlike the previous week, where I had to go in for chemotherapy everyday from 8 to 4, I only had to go in for chemotherapy on Tuesday. To make things even better, I only had to get pumped full of "chemo juice" for only 2 hours. That's a lot better than 8 hours. I went in at around 10:00am to get connected to the IV pump. One of the nurses put the IV in a vein located on my right hand. It hurts more when they the IV in your hand, rather than your arm. The veins are little smaller up there. I didn't have choice over the matter because I was running out of good veins. After I was connected to the machine, one of the lab guys came in to draw some blood. This became a weekly thing for me. The doctors wanted to check my cancer markers every week to see if the chemotherapy was working. It had been. After the first week alone, my markers went down from 20,000 to 18, 000. That's pretty good.

Today I was going to get a new type of chemo juice. I'm not sure how to spell it but it sounded like "blee-oh-my-a-son". From here on I'll call it "Blee Juice". The nurses warned me that the "Blee Juice" had some side effects. For one, it was going to make me kind of dizzy. Secondly, I would probably have a slight experience of the shivers. Ha! "Slight" if you were comparing me to a True Value paint machine mixer! After the short stay at the hospital I got in my car with my mom. I needed her to take me to Seafirst so I could pay my VISA bill. After a couple of minutes driving my teeth started to chatter. I knew this was coming so I didn't think much of it. After a few more minutes they were really going. "Chatter chatter chatter chatter chatter etc..." I was sounding like "Woody Woodpecker". After a few more minutes my whole body was shaking. I couldn't stop it either. I felt really cold. By the time we got back into Lakewood I was shaking like I was overdosed on drugs. We finally got to Seafirst. I would have had my mom go in for me but I had to sign the deposit slip. I got out of the car and walked into the bank, shaking the whole way. Once I was in the bank I went to the table with the deposit slips. I tried grabbing one of the pens but I couldn't keep my hand still. After a lot of concentration I finally got it and brought out the paper I needed. All I really had to do was enter the amount and sign it. This would be harder than it seemed. I wrote the amount in the appropriate box. I don't know how the bank teller could possibly read it. It looked like an infant wrote it. Next I went for my signature. I bent over to try to get a better angle. My hand was shaking really bad now. I spent about a full minute writing out the name "Clifford Colon". When I was done I got in line to give the bank teller my deposit. Since I had just received "blee juice" and had gotten blood drawn, I had two band-aids on each arm (one on my hand, one on my arm). Added with the fact that I was shaking like a drug abuser, I looked a little funny in the eyes of the other customers. Everyone else in the line was staring at me with a look saying "what's the matter with that guy?" I tried hard not to pay any attention to them. All I wanted to do was deposit my payment. I finally reached the bank teller. She looked at me funny and said "Can I help you sir?" I nodded my head. "I-I-I....Na-na-na-eee-eee-eee-ddd-ddd-ddd....to-to-to...maaaaaake....a-a-a-a-a....deposit...fo-fo-or m-my...V...I...S...Aaaaa." I couldn't spit out the words with my teeth chattering as they were. I tried saying it again. Now everyone was really staring at me. The teller finally deciphered what I was trying to say and took my money. I grabbed my receipt with my shaky hand and said "T-t-h-h-aaaaank...youuuuuuu..." With that I rushed out of the bank and went back into my moms car. On the way back to the house I told my mom my little incident. We got back to my house and I went straight for bed. I had my mom bring me several more blankets so I wouldn't be so cold. As I was laying there, my brother Joe came in the room. He saw that I was shaking and said "Are you alright Cliffy?" I spitted out the words, "L-l-eee-aa-vvvve...ma-ma-meee...alone!!!" With that I fell asleep. After a few hours the shivers went away. That night I went to church band practice.

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