Second chemo

A horrible, terrible experience. I don't know how soon I'll recover. Jerry won, starting with a totally unfair 7-letter first play.

Oh, the chemo? Nothing to it. Well, not much. I made the mistake of asking the nurse if the injection into the port was supposed to sting like that, and she schlepped me down to the radiation people, who injected me with dye and took x-rays, which showed that everything was fine. By then, of course, the site had stopped stinging and all went smoothly for the chemo itself.

We had seen the doctor, who was pleased with how well I tolerated the first round. My blood counts are all back to normal, I haven't had overwhelming nausea or any vomiting, my appetite is about back, my weight is stable, no mouth sores or other problems (once the back healed), and while I complain of tiredness and lack of energy, he asked only if I could walk across the room without getting out of breath. We seem to have different definitions for lack of energy. He made one change in my chemo cocktail, cutting some of it down a bit so that though my wbc and platelets will go down next week as expected, they won't go down quite as much. It's a neat balance between enough chemo to wham the cancer cells but not so much that one cold germ knocks me out completely.

While Jerry and I played our Scrabble game, we shared a bagel and cream cheese. The person in the next recliner over, in the middle of a discussion with his nurse on severe nausea, averted his eyes.

After the game, Jerry went over to the Y for a sauna while I decided that the sock I was making Luther would easily fit a baby elephant and frogged (ripped out) the entire thing. This was actually good, because I'd decided I didn't like the pattern anyhow and was dreading the second sock. I re-cast on for two socks on two needles, a better pattern. (End of unexpected knitting interpolation)

Thanks to the anti-nausea medication in the IV and the Prochlorperazine I took when I got home, I was out of it all evening and crashed at 8:30 (yes, that's early even for me). Today I feel a bit woozy, but no nausea, just the feeling that I might be coming down with the flu. So it's a day to take it easy and watch Cushing and Sons dig in our front yard and decide what, if anything, is wrong with our well, and if it can be fixed.