Today is a great day.
It is Thursday of the third week after my session 7 of Chemo in this
round. The significance of that
statement is that I am now having Chemo every three weeks instead of every two
weeks. The third week gives me an
additional 7 days to strengthen my body and enjoy some of the more normal
things in our days.
Dr Jonker and I discussed this transition as I was finding
the quality of my life was way down when we were on a two week cycle. As I have explained before, the three day
chemo session makes me quite nauseous and feeling very lethargic without the
ability to sleep well for about the six or seven day mark. After that there is the usual struggle with
regularity and frequency of bowel activity that becomes a factor in daily
decision making. This struggle is
literally “a pain in the ass” and guides my activities or lack thereof. So what happens is that week two is generally
a re-build week with lots of uncertainty.
Up until this session I only had 14 days between sessions and that gave
me very little time to enjoy my life. In
discussion with Dr Jonker we came to an agreement that the three week cycle would
not impact his approach to treatment but would certainly impact my ability to
cope with the side effects. This treatment
will be my first 3 week cycle in this Round.
I am sitting here at Lake Bernard listening to blowing wind
on a cool but very sunny day. The
overnight temperature was below freezing (-10) but speculation has it that
during the latter part of the day the temperature rocketing up to 0. This is April and the temperature is still at
0. We have had some warmer days and there
has been some thawing/melting but it is still 0 in April! I fear our “ice out” day on the lake will be well
after our normal April 17th date.
I do not recall such a bad winter in terms of cold, snow and general bitterness. Perhaps I am just getting old and cold but I
certainly do not recall such a winter.
I am trying to look forward to spring where the brown fields
start to turn brilliant and varying shades of green against the clear blue sun
filled sky and the temperatures are in the positive double digits as the days grow
longer. I am also looking forward to the
time when the boats are in the lake and we are able to cruise the lake while enjoying
evening appies and beverages. All of those
thoughts keep me going as we struggle with shifting country roads during the
thaw, dirty patches where the snow has left wet areas for the dog to wallow in,
uncertainty of the winter damages due to heavy snow and ice, the never ending
sightings of dog poop that appear after the snow has melted, potential of
flooding or wet lands as a result of the abundance of snow this year and the
question of when will the ice leave the lake.
All of these factors make for interesting discussions but I will be
happy when they are all past us. I am a
summer sort of guy and summer on Lake Bernard is the focus right now.
But I digress .....
On Monday next week I will go for my pre-Chemo blood tests,
Dr appointment and a trip to the Pharmacy to pick up my ancillary drugs for my
Tuesday Chemo session. My early morning
session is at the Queensway Carleton Hospital and I expect to be out of there
by noon. My week ahead has been cleared
of WestJet scheduled shifts as I find it hard to work right after my treatment. I am going to chat with the Dr to see about a
letter to my employer to see if I can have some schedule relief around Chemo days.
Apparently WestJet is open to such a
suggestion as I met with my HR person last week and we discussed this whole
issue. I am still trying to maintain a
bubble at WestJet but felt I had to talk to someone about the trials and tribulations
of my treatments and my HR person has been quite helpful in maintaining
confidentiality on this subject.
In closing today I would like to thank you for dropping in
and feel free to send any inquiries you might have to me directly. I appreciate
your interest.
Be well ......
