(Le Mon)de Graphique...Chemo Infusion No. 2

The Chemotherapy cruise has a well-known side-effect, nausea. Like all good cruise lines, Taxotere and Cytoxan don't disappoint when it comes to programming. The nausea is tolerable with scheduled doses of powerful pharmaco-wizardry such as Anzemet.

Passengers must not relax...the next activity awaits....ahhh, the Midnight Metallic Buffet. Imagine a lozenge made of pure iron, or a milkshake of iron filings. Imagine your palate's reaction, epicurean dissonance manifest in pilomotor reflex...a goose bump paté dotting the dermis. She tells me that even water has an alloy aftertaste, an unenviable mineral bouquet. Her grimace is a gesture equal parts disbelief and disappointment. (Her taste buds do eventually regain their senses, a week or so after the infusion.)

Lemons, or more accurately lemon flavorings, are a powerful citric countermeasure. Lemon drops taste great. Lemon flavored water quenches her thirst. I'm not sure why these particular papillae are spared by the chemotherapeutic assault on taste. (I recall reading comic books decades ago and one of my favorites was Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. His ring, was the most powerful force a young boy could read about; however, it was unable to affect anything yellow. Yellow escaped then, and it seems to escape now.) In order to ward off the zesty zinc aftertaste, I brought a lemon to the infusion party, my citrus version of a voodoo amulet. The lemon won't restore her sense of taste, but it did make our time at the hospital more palatable. Daniela was a great sport, as was her friend Petra. They tolerated my camera, and even joined in the lemon-play.

Here are the pictures. As usual, if you would like to read the captions or view the images at your own pace, click here.



Lemon Coda: Our favorite nurse at the Infusion Coliseum is Julie, who lost a recent Super Bowl bet with her boyfriend. (She is a New England Patriots Fan, while Mike is a New York Giants fan.) She had to attire herself in this t-shirt toga, a made-to-order outfit courtesy of Mike. She sported it well, all in good taste. Here is her smile along with the Patriots' season record.