It's Still Winter...

I can't believe that it is February already! I can't believe that the ground hog saw his shadow indicating 6 more weeks of winter (although when you take him out of his hole and put him in a cage in the sun I'm thinking he's going to see a shadow...). So, I'm having a little difficulty thinking clearly - it seems to take a lot of energy to think about what I want to say or even to follow a conversation sometimes. I will try to be as coherent as possible.

On Tuesday, January 20th, I went to see Dr. Kennedy and was surprised and happy to see Dan, my chemo nurse. He and a few others from Torresdale rotate to this office on Tuesdays. He drew blood from my port for more tests including a second liver panel. When I saw Dr. Kennedy she said that my liver function numbers were good. I am moving through this pretty well as far as I'm concerned. The prednisone was decreased to 10mg for a few days to be further decreased to 5mg by the time I am ready to have the next chemo. She cleared me for Thursday, January 29th at 8am. (Kenny's birthday...).

On chemo days we've fallen into a routine...Col and I eat, I take meds and we leave for the hospital. I sign in, we wait to be called into the lab where I am weighed (yuk - especially with all that prednisone - yuk) and then go into the chemo room, sign in, leave the blood tubes and take MY seat around back in Dan's section. When Susan gets to the hospital she checks in with her department and then stops by. Later at her next break she'll come by again and sometimes bring me a hot chocolate. Col stays with me as we pray that the port can be accessed easily, that the bloodwork results give a green light for the treatment, and for the next 5 hours we banter with the nurses, eat pretzels ( Thursday - Pretzel Day), talk, use guided imagery, etc. At some point, after the benedryl is infused, I get sleepy and Col gives me a blanket and her zune (MP3) and I go off to sleep for awhile and she gets to read or do some work. I am usually awake enough to participate in any conversations that are going on around me and I rarely miss an opportunity to throw in a witty remark. I like to be awake and watch Dan push the Adriamyacin and then I am usually set to go. I have my next appointment card in hand and we stop at the desk on the way out with our co-pay check all written out. Occasionally we will stop for something to eat but most times we'll head home and I will sleep on and off for the afternoon.

I've been thinking about what I've been doing to help myself heal and I realize that I've been pretty creative. One of the things that stands out that I'd like a little help with is laughter. I don't watch a lot of TV, but I do watch Raymond and Friends after 11. Sometimes Frazier. So my request is that you send me (blog, e-mail if you can't blog for some reason) the names of your favorite movies that will make me laugh. I realize that narrowing it down will be difficult since I laugh at just about anything, but try. And I know, for some of you that it will be tempting to suggest The English Patient, but please don't since I will never watch that movie again...

Talk to you soon...I'm able to think again...