Is Chemo Brain Contagious?

You never heard of it? Chemo brain is a sometimes side effect from chemo treatments. You can have mental confusion, difficulty with memory and more. You can read about it here. Well, I am wondering if it's contagious (since Gerry clearly has it - could I have caught it from him?). Lately my forgetfulness has gotten a little worse than it is for being...well, my age (slightly over 35....ok...40....ok....45....ok - THAT'S ENOUGH). I always said that it was really the result of a busy mind, and God knows, mine has been running on double time lately. But tonight took the cake!!! I went to work today (and as my one or two readers know, I am on a Family Medical Leave of Absence from Nov.12 - Feb.22). I had told my principal, however, that I would come in one day every three weeks to update and extend my lesson plans for several week. In addition I had to make the December homework calendar for the students, print out materials for the phonics program, get in a supply order (that I had to finish at home, too) and more. I did get to have lunch with some of my friends there. We are on different lunch times (not lunch HOURS as we only get 30 minutes) ordinarily but since I was working on my own time today I was able to eat when I wanted to (not when the class has lunch). And of course, even though I was NOT working with the students, I was in the room so I was called on by some of them for assistance. I left at 2:15 because I had a 3;45 appointment south of school...and south of my former school. Since I live 26 miles from the current one and 30 miles from the old one, I rarely get down that way if I am not working. So I arranged to stop into my former school to see my coworker/friends there. Then, the appointment. I got home at 6 PM and started dinner. Here is where my brain went awry. I have a wonderful, fabulous electric stainless steel tea pot. I LOVE this pot. Gerry and I use it all the time. I also have a VERY tiny kitchen (called a galley kitchen) and have very little counter space (it wouldn't be as bad but Gerry insists on having the toaster out, and I have no room in my cabinets for the Forman Grill or the food processor). The electric tea pot sits ON TOP of my electric glasstop stove. You see where I am going with this, right? I put a pot of water on one burner (for pasta), a small pot of tomato sauce on another burner, and a second little pot of sauce (for me...I am not a fan of Ragu, which Gerry likes) on the third burner. THEN...I turned on the burners, turned my back to the sink, and...sniff, sniff...P-U!!!!! I turned around and saw my wonderful, fabulous tea pot's bottom melting down quicker than a California mudslide. The room immediately filled with toxic smoke! YUP - I had turned on the burner under the tea pot...we NEVER turn that one on, but....! I quickly turned off the burner and grabbed the tea pot off of the stove, then with my towel I grabbed the bottom part of the pot. It was BLACK GOO all over the burner. I got off as much as I could with a wooden spoon and this is what it looked like:

I opened the door and windows, but I had to wait until the burner cooled down. Then I took the glasstop cleaner, and my scrubbie sponge (for teflon pots) and worked and worked and worked....and with muscle and determination, I got it perfectly clean. You can even see the flash reflection on the stove top. Gerry offered to buy a new stove top, but why waste the money? Determination won over. Tomorrow...I buy another teapot!