With a two-week chemo cycle, I pretty much have a bad week then a good week. The good times are here!<\/p>\n
December 12, 2006<\/p>\n
Whew, feeling mostly not nauseous (like being “only mostly dead<\/a>“). Good music helps! I’ve been told my taste is eclectic, I guess… China Crisis, Woodentops, P.O.D., James, Flogging Molly, Sublime, the Decemberists just went through my queue… random good-vibes stuff from across the decades. What are you listening to? I listen to mp3’s at work with RF wireless headphones that ALMOST reach the bathroom, at home with my fun new MythTV all-in-one PVR (it’s jammed with Christmas music right now), in the car through my Treo rigged up to pipe through my car stereo, but I haven’t rigged up any way to listen on my bike, wonder if that’s one of those good or bad ideas, I can’t decide… I guess I know what my wife would say…<\/p>\n Another tidbit of advice for anyone else “doing this thing” which seems counterintuitive: eating helps me beat nausea. So I try to snack a lot. I come up with some weird snacks, since I’m trying to avoid refined sugars at this point: pecans, blueberries in soy yogurt, almond butter on crackers, soups (which tend to be SALTY unless you make them yourself).<\/p>\n So let’s review… cancer bad, chemo good, nausea bad, exercise good, music good, food good… as usual, GOOD TRIUMPHS! :><\/p>\n December 13<\/p>\n Apparently I worried me mum with my sensational biking stories. After she read about it, she went right to L.L. Bean and ordered a bunch of cold-weather grear for me. Mom, stop! You’re too kind. I have to admit, the gloves were nice on the ride this morning (although it wasn’t 22 degrees today!).<\/p>\n UPDATE: Doh, Andrea got me the gloves, I didn’t even realize. “YOU BEEN SO GOOD TO ME, I SAID YOU BEEN SO GOOD TO ME… you know you make me wanna SHOUT!” But the socks and funky headgear were great additions, mum – I love funky headgear!<\/p>\n December 14<\/p>\n A morning doctor’s appointment (actually with the nurse) was great – while she is “very conservative” (read: anti-supplements), she made my day by telling me that on today’s chemotherapy regimens, pretty much everyone does well with keeping the cancer in remission throughout the chemotherapy. Something that basic, and I was still unsure. So it put a smile on my face to hear.<\/p>\n December 16<\/p>\n Made pancakes this morning (I think this brings Reiley more joy than anything else in life, how can I resist?), ran three miles, then it was off to the Nutcracker, another great performance by our own orchestra and ballet company. It gets even better – off to Mellow Mushroom after that, then later that night, some wonderful folks from RLC came by to sing us some carols. They filled the whole house with their warm wonderful voices. Goosebumps! :> Thanks guys!!<\/p>\n December 17<\/p>\n Andrea was stressed out this morning being overloaded with holiday activities. Namely, I had talked her into letting me whip up lunch for a get-together with the Gillespies, but didn’t do much to prepare. Against her advice, I went with my usual chaotic wing-it-athon, but she hung in there and I managed to pull it off without making everyone wait for lunch for TOO long. I cranked out some burgundy soup and Thanksgiving tofu loaf from my favorite cookbook, Friendly Foods<\/a>, and I think it all came together well. We had another epic game of Carcassonne, and Larry and I battled to the bitter end, but he prevailed as the winner using the strategies provided by the (new) Towers expansion<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was great to have something to take my mind off the next chemo, tomorrow. Oops – now why did I bring that up? :><\/p>\n