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"I brought my own hospital socks to my surgery yesterday. I have a collection, you see. This year, I went to five different hospitals, including about two dozen overnight stays, a bone marrow biopsy, three surgeries and one on-the-fly removal of a PICC line, a catheter that&amp;#039;s inserted into the veins in your arm, when I stormed out of one of those five hospitals against medical advice. And yet, all I have to show for it all is my hospital sock collection. So far. Last week, I scheduled the surgical removal of my port, another type of catheter for chemotherapy, like other people plan dentist appointments: How about Tuesday morning while the kids are at school? When you&amp;#039;ve been through what I&amp;#039;ve been through this year, a little same-day surgery seems no more complicated than getting your hair colored. From what I can remember, anyhow. Besides, the side effects of yesterday&amp;#039;s surgery are mild compared to some of what I&amp;#039;ve endured this year, including: hair loss, bruises, scars, swelling, nausea, increased appetite, loss of appetite, difficulty swallowing, insomnia, sleepiness, intense bone pain, radiation burns and blisters, weak muscles, fatigue, quavering voice, dizziness, tooth sensitivity, weight gain, weight loss and shingles.  But at least my acne was cured. When you&amp;#039;re a cancer patient, your tolerance level for side effects goes up even as your white blood cell counts go down. I used to get aggravated if I strained a muscle and couldn&amp;#039;t work out at the gym. Now I&amp;#039;m just happy to be able to get home from the school bus stop on the corner without shuffling and gasping for air the whole way.  I used to need total silence to sleep. Now I can nap as long as no one&amp;#039;s outside my door shouting, &amp;quot;We need a bed pan clean-up in Room 204!&amp;quot;And I used to worry that I was getting unsightly wrinkles on my chest. Not anymore. You can&amp;#039;t see them under my radiation burns, which look I put sunscreen every where except my chest and upper back like a hung-over college student on Spring Break in Cancun. Wrinkles on my chest? I&amp;#039;m just happy to have skin there at all. Yesterday, the same-day surgery nurse offered me a pair of new hospital socks. I stuffed them in my coat pocket to add to my 2007 collection, which is quite impressive. I&amp;#039;m hoping they&amp;#039;re my last new pair for a long, long time. In fact, I hope I don&amp;#039;t get any in 2008. Consider it another side effect of cancer treatments. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/a1922/good-grief-112807/>