Mailed off my Christmas packages this morning! That felt good! This is by far the earliest I have ever done that! There were just two people in line at the Post Office when I got there.

This afternoon I had to drive the Jordan Youth Symphony carpool for M&M and 4 other kids from her school. I drive them every other week. Today I wore my wig and a couple of the girls commented on my new hairdo. One of the girls asked if I got my haircut. I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that so I said that it was a new hairstyle. Then on the way home two of the kids (siblings that live a couple of doors away from us) were asking M&M about my new hairstyle. She said she was trying to explain to them so that they could figure it out for themselves, but they didn't quite get what she was saying until she came out and told them that it was a wig! She got a good laugh out of that! She said she was trying to explain that I was going through chemo for my cancer treatment and that hair usually falls out... Then I got my hair cut, but my hair has still been falling out... It was funny to hear the story afterwards. Emily's first comment when she walked in the door from being dropped off was, "Well Mom, your wig works!"

I've been battling a sore tooth/jaw that started hurting on Saturday. I hope it is not something serious that I am going to have to go into the dentist for. Hopefully it is just a slight irritation or infection that has been made worse by my low blood counts. I am monitoring my temperature and then trying to take better care in my brushing and flossing and mouth rinse. I'm also trying an essential oil called Clove on the area. If it starts feeling worse over the next day or two I should probably go in to see the dentist... Other than that and a headache that comes and goes, I feel fine.

As a side note - I have been participating in another clinical trial where I call into a phone helpline each day to answer questions with an automated system on the side effects of my chemo treatments. Sometimes there are some helpful tips that they give during the call to help deal with the effects of the chemo. Usually around this time in the calls they start advising you to not floss your teeth for about a week to minimize the chances of getting a cut in your mouth that will then get infected by bacteria from food or other causes. I just think that's an interesting piece of advice - to not floss your teeth because it could cause an infection instead of it helping to clean out the bacteria. I think with this recent mouth problem it has been me notflossing my teeth that has caused the problem...