Chemo trundles along. I was bragging the other day to a friend that my heartburn had virtually disappeared, and spouting all this crap about how I think it's because the higher doses of chemo are finally exiting my body, and the lower doses that I'm getting weekly aren't affecting me as strongly, blah blah blah....and this week I have horrible heartburn! Go figure. Thwarted again.
My last two trips to Raleigh have been relatively uneventful, medically speaking. My nurses have been great, stabbing my veins with enthusiasm and hitting blood every time. The waiting room camp-outs haven't been too terrible, the bloodwork has been good, and (knock on wood) everything seems to be going according to plan. I realize that I haven't yet shared the fact that I've gotten my surgery all arranged and figured out -- I'll do a blog post about that soon. Anyway, so as far as the actual treatments go, things have been going pretty smoothly.
Mostly I am just tired of the traveling, tired of the poking of the arms, tired of the drugs and the icky stomach and the pill-popping and the waiting around. I'm ready to be done with this little adventure.
My last two trips to Raleigh have been relatively uneventful, medically speaking. My nurses have been great, stabbing my veins with enthusiasm and hitting blood every time. The waiting room camp-outs haven't been too terrible, the bloodwork has been good, and (knock on wood) everything seems to be going according to plan. I realize that I haven't yet shared the fact that I've gotten my surgery all arranged and figured out -- I'll do a blog post about that soon. Anyway, so as far as the actual treatments go, things have been going pretty smoothly.
Mostly I am just tired of the traveling, tired of the poking of the arms, tired of the drugs and the icky stomach and the pill-popping and the waiting around. I'm ready to be done with this little adventure.
So, let's see, a bod-update:
-Well, like I said, heartburn has been largely absent but is making a return this week. However, it's the low-grade, irritating/uncomfortable heartburn, not the vicious, jump-out-a-window heartburn. So I'm popping the Zantac and washing them down with Tums and just dealing with it.
-I've been a bit achy recently, but I'm not sure whether to attribute that to the chemo or to the fact that I've actually dragged my ass to the gym several times a week for the past couple weeks, trying desperately to counteract the effects of the steroids and the hormones and the chemo, which are wreaking havoc on my hips.
-The biggest change is that I'm sprouting downy hair all over, like some kind of baby monkey. Well, it's not as though I'm growing it where it wasn't before, it just seems like an awful lot of hair when I've gotten used to being as smooth as a little seal for the past few months. So, I've gone from baby seal to baby monkey. Both cute, one furry.
-Well, like I said, heartburn has been largely absent but is making a return this week. However, it's the low-grade, irritating/uncomfortable heartburn, not the vicious, jump-out-a-window heartburn. So I'm popping the Zantac and washing them down with Tums and just dealing with it.
-I've been a bit achy recently, but I'm not sure whether to attribute that to the chemo or to the fact that I've actually dragged my ass to the gym several times a week for the past couple weeks, trying desperately to counteract the effects of the steroids and the hormones and the chemo, which are wreaking havoc on my hips.
-The biggest change is that I'm sprouting downy hair all over, like some kind of baby monkey. Well, it's not as though I'm growing it where it wasn't before, it just seems like an awful lot of hair when I've gotten used to being as smooth as a little seal for the past few months. So, I've gone from baby seal to baby monkey. Both cute, one furry.
In spite of the chemo, I've been trying to have some fun in Raleigh. Jenn and I went to a UNC/Wake game with some of her friends (Wake won!) a couple of weeks ago, which is always a blast. And, I've just generally been getting to spend some good time relaxing in a lovely home, with Mom and Lisa and Tom and Jenn and sometimes the other siblings too. And, it's always a blast to see Hudson, to see him get bigger, get smarter, learn more, get more hair (like me), and start to recognize me when I walk in the room.
(You can see the fuzz increase over these next three shots!)
(You can see the fuzz increase over these next three shots!)
The travel has been the really exciting event recently. During my last trip to Raleigh, a huge snowstorm hit Tulsa, effectively stranding me on the East Coast for three extra days. Luckily, they had to cancel one performance because of weather, so I really only missed one extra show. But I did spend several days going back and forth to the Atlanta airport, hanging out, getting on planes, getting off planes, standing in lines, etc. The upside is that I got to spend some time with Johanna and her fiance Michael, who I haven't gotten to see in a really long time. So, that was fun! It's all about trade-offs, this whole cancer thing.