Up front, some housekeeping notes. My dear friend, Theresa, has been working on my site, giving it the old facelift and I think it’s looking really nice. The only thing is there have been some glitches in switching to a new look. Nobody knows why these things happen, they just do, that’s technology for ya! So, the only important glitch is that nobody is getting email notifications when I put out a new post. Theresa’s working on it but in the meantime, you should see a “Subscribe” button, so go ahead and press on it, even if you’ve already subscribed, because we will have to build up the subscription list from scratch again. Apologies both from me and from Theresa, who wanted me to pass hers on.
I’ve had an easier time of it with the new chemo, which has been a relief. I had some nausea and vomiting the first two treatments, but otherwise not much aside from the usual fatigue (not as bad though), brain fog, and pain, which has been kept under pretty good control with the meds. I had another treatment yesterday and no nausea yet.
I’m not the only one feeling some pain though. Dave has come down with cluster headaches. If you’ve never heard of them, I’m not surprised, they’re very rare. They’re called that because the sufferer gets a headache every day for awhile— at the same time and in the same place, usually over one eye or one side of the head— then they go away for several weeks or months, then tend to come back for awhile. They are very severe headaches that incapacitate the sufferer for several hours a day, which is pretty rough. He was very stoic during those horrible episodes, I would only hear a quiet moan every once in awhile. His doctor was able to prescribe steroids, which helped for a while but then the headaches crept back once he weaned himself off them. He’s back on a bigger dose, which keeps him awake at night, but at least he’s not getting headaches. We’ll see how it goes… My friend calls prednisone “The Devil’s TicTac” because it can cause aggression. I do notice an uptick of irritability in Dave,…but worth it so he doesn’t have to lie in bed for three hours a day in terrible pain. Ugh!
I’ve had a little more energy and focus so I’ve gotten back into knitting. I cast on a sweater recently, and finished a sock that I had started for Dave around Christmas time. I’m happy to be back into it and I hope I’ll be able to finish these projects. The sweater is a pretty big one with miles of plain stockinette knitting, (one row of knitting, then one row of purling: repeat ad nauseum). I’ve always avoided that type of project because I found it boring, but now it’s soothing, and I’m using the project to focus on getting an even tension so the finished fabric looks better. Maybe I’ll finally figure it out. There’s some kind of life lesson there I’m sure.
We had our son, Travis, and his family here for three nights this week and it was lovely! We hadn’t seen our grandson, Iggy, or his Mom, Allison, in person since Christmas because I just didn’t have the energy to have them stay over. Now that I’m feeling a lot better it’ll be possible more often I hope. Iggy is endlessly entertaining and is a pretty good-humoured toddler in general, so it was delightful. Whenever I lost energy I could just remove myself to my room and rest up, so I think the visit ended up being therapeutic rather than exhausting.
Since I have less nausea I’m not having too much trouble eating these days. I have to eat frequently, which can be annoying if I’m out and about, but I can eat lots of things that I used to try to avoid, so that’s fun. For instance I got Dave to take me out for poutine today for lunch! We only managed to get through half of one “small” one, but it felt a bit like having a cheeky beer in the afternoon, so I came away feeling pretty chuffed. (If I sound British right there, I blame Erica)
So, things are going as well as can be expected these days. We’re looking forward to welcoming Erica’s husband, Neil, for three weeks very soon. He’s a really sweet man and a wonderful cook, so I expect we’ll be eating pretty well while he’s here (just like we always do, thanks to Dave!). Thanks to his Scottish heritage he likes to cook with lots of fat and potatoes, which is all to the good for me these days. I’m so glad I feel well enough to have people visit and to do more things. It’s so freeing to start feeling –close to –normal again. I sometimes wonder, had I not had pneumonia, would I have felt better a lot sooner? I keep blaming the folfirinox for feeling bad for so long, but that pneumonia threw me on the ground and stomped on me, so I can’t forget that.
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