Saturday, April 26, 2014

Staying the Course

It has been a few weeks since the last posting and I thought I would update the blog to let you all know what is happening.

The snow is almost completely gone and the lake is free of ice. Last week, our friend Jerry managed to gather up 23 gallons of maple sap for us and I am boiling it down now. We should get  a couple more quarts of syrup, but that will be the last of it. Then it will be time to clean up the mess all this has made.

Mostly, I am feeling pretty good lately - especially my back and ribs - which probably means that the bones are healing a bit. I am still not allowed to lift heavy things which is frustrating, and I am not yet chainsaw certified, but this is progress. I have many small side-effects from the chemo, but none are too bad and they are too numerous and boring to detail. I do get tired easily and seem to need lots of sleep. My "brain to mouth barrier" (never strong to begin with) continues to weaken. Also, I am VERY sensitive to the sun. I burn easily; it takes a long time to heal and does not turn into a tan. And this is April. July should be interesting.

I am on a "break week" from chemo which means that I only had chemo on Monday this week. We had a meeting with the Dana Farber oncologists on Wednesday. This included another complete set of blood tests - even though I had had a set with my Hookset oncologist on Monday. Fortunately, all the numbers looked pretty good - including the IGg which is the one that has been giving us trouble, so that is good news. The plan is to continue with chemo cycles - which means two weeks of chemo followed by a break week. For us this translates to two weeks where we spend Monday afternoon to Thursday morning at "Fox Hill Village" in Westwood with stops for chemo in Hookset on the way from Meredith and back. On the "rest week" we have chemo only on Monday, so we will most likely return to Meredith and skip Westwood on that week.

Fox Hill Village is interesting. They have a group picture puzzle set up on each floor. I already got chastised for "being too good at puzzle making". Barbara is starting a Mah Jongg group. She has also hired a designer/decorator for the apartment. I don't see the point. We already have a TV, a bed and Internet access. What more do we need? Perhaps men are not meant to understand these things.

One really good bit of news: I asked my oncologist if it would be OK for me to have a glass of wine on days when I am not getting chemo. He did not see any problem as long as I do not drink on chemo days or the day before or the day after. You can imagine how excited I was to hear that. But when I worked out my actual drinking days, it comes to 4 days during every 21 day cycle. Hey - its better than nothing. I prefer to think of the glass (or in this case, the "wine glass") as being "half full" rather than "half empty". . 

No comments:

Post a Comment