I’m In! They Like Me – They Really Like Me!
Well – all the fuss and buzz last week about my white blood cells came to a head today and I made the cut. I was on the high range of “normal.” Once again continuing my presence in the 2nd and 3rd standard deviation to the right of the normal distribution first documented with my spectacular performances on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills in the 4th grade.
My Chemo Chair
And … wait for it… I GOT MY CHAIR! To the right is the picture of my precious (click on it and see larger version.) They did not steal my precious this time… it is my precious.
It is … a chair – I know – but this chair allows me to command the chemo floor. I can see to the right and left.. I can see out the window and I can see the comings and goings of the members of my new tribe.
It is – The Iron Throne.
Seriously – it is just a chair. MY chair.
Good Day All In All
Given that the whites cells were up and I could get chemo was a load of my mind. Sitting around doing nothing makes it feel like you’re not being responsible. Today I felt like I was at least doing something to help my cause.
Got there at 8:00 am – in MY chair by 8:15 am and left around 2:30 pm – so about 6 hours total. The bad thing for me, as you know, is that my bladder isn’t as voluminous as it has been in the past. And… when they give me chemo they pump a TON of fluids between the two chemo drugs.
So imagine me… attached to a coat rack by a needle and some clear tubing – and needing to get up every 30 minutes and do a Fred Astaire dance to the bathroom and back to my chair. I’m sure my fellow infusers thought I was nuts – some of whom NEVER got up once in a 4-hour stint. I think I got my 10,000 steps in today anyway.
Got a new anti-nausea drug today so we’ll give that a whirl. Also, got new pain killers and upped some other drugs that work on nerve pain. So far today I’ve felt better than the last two weeks. But that could be a function of the steroids they give prior to chemo.
We’ll see. Fingers crossed.
Tomorrow (Dec 12) I go at 1:00 pm for another CAT scan and then I meet with the surgeon on Friday Dec 14 to see if the cancer is still growing and if we need to rearrange our chemo-then-surgery plan to a surgery-then-chemo plan.
You will know when I know.