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Yesterday I had my fifth infusion. This means I only have one more weekly infusion to go before I can switch to a monthly schedule. Yay! This may sound odd, but I had a really good time during my treatment yesterday... which I suppose is saying something because during treatments you're basically just sitting still for six hours while they pump a poison into you.

I do have to admit that I've never really had a bad time during my infusions, and I credit the awesome nurses in the infusion room for this. They are hilarious, always upbeat, and always ready to help you with anything you need (water, a blanket, gossip). I don't know if any of you have ever had the chance to see a nurse in action, but it's kind of amazing. Sometimes I feel like I'm taking part in a wildlife study as I watch them zip around, like frantic birds in their natural habitat. My nurses can multitask like pros – prepping you for a blood draw while taking your vitals and somehow managing to carry on a conversation with you about politics through the whole thing. To me, a girl who can't even talk and type at the same time, this is beyond impressive. It also makes me feel quite lazy to be lounging around in a comfy chair while they do all this running around... but as I'm connected to an IV pole, I suppose it's not like I could keep up even if I tried.

But I've gotten sidetracked, because the point was that as fun as the nurses make the experience, sometimes your fellow patients are even more entertaining. Case in point, a sixty-something southern-born-and-bred retiree who plopped herself down in the infusion chair next to mine. I am going to call this patient Mrs. Bree. Yesterday, Mrs. Bree and I had quite the conversation. She likes to talk and I especially liked to listen because I was so in love with her Georgia drawl. Here is what I learned over the course of the day. Mrs. Bree loves clogs, her twenty year-old cat, her soon-to-be-retired navy officer husband, and Hugh Jackman. I think she loves Hugh Jackman most of all. I honestly have never seen anyone go so crazy over a Hollywood star before. Mr. Jackman happened to be a guest on Regis and Kelly that day, which as usual, was playing in the infusion room. As soon as they announced the guest, Mrs. Bree clapped both hands over her mouth, started kicking her feet up and down like an excited five year-old, and I think began to hyperventilate a little bit. She then proceeded to ask me and the man seated on my other side if we didn't think Jackman was just the kindest, sexiest, most talented man alive and then launched into a detailed account of why she thought he was so amazing. The poor guy next to me (and incidentally the only male in the room) looked bored at first, and then looked increasingly annoyed as the nurses were drawn into a discussion on the finer points of Hugh Jackman's facial hair.

Now I will admit, Hugh is a hot guy. But most people in Hollywood are attractive so I'm really not that impressed by you just being good looking if you're an actor. I do like him better than most I suppose, because he seems well-spoken, kind, and he has a really good voice (if you can sing you are instantly more attractive according to my logic). Still, I was unprepared for Mrs. Bree's reaction during his interview. She shushed us all urgently whenever Jackman was on screen. She wildly flailed every single one of her limbs in an attempt to shoo nurses from blocking her view of the TV. And she thought nothing of basically shoving aside the poor nurse who was, at that precise moment, attempting to take her IV out.

As crazy as I found Mrs. Bree's behavior, it was also kind of adorable. I'm not sure exactly what illness she has, but I do know it's a chronic and life-threatening autoimmune disease for which she will receive treatments for the rest of her life. It's nice to see that despite all her years of treatments and despite all the years ahead, she's still more gregarious and energetic than a teenage girl at a Robert Pattinson movie.

I wanted to mention this little experience because I feel like you get used to hearing only about how horrible chemotherapy is. But really, it's nice to sit and talk with the other patients in the room during treatments. As one other patient said later on in the day, “It's like we're all at a bar! We've each got our different cocktails – hey can I buy you a drink?” I found this to be a stunningly good comparison actually. Just like at a bar, you never know who you might run into or where the conversation might take you. In my case, I now know everything I could ever possibly want to know about clogs.

This post is dedicated to Hugh Jackman.