Saturday was Emily's Birth Day. She visited me for part of the morning and all of the afternoon. We played San Juan, picked up take-out for lunch, and watched a show. Later that evening my brother Scott came by, we talked for about 5 hours. Saturday was a good day.
Sunday started with a visit from Emily and the boys. We ate, watched a few episodes of Adventure Time, did some homework, and played goofy April Fool's pranks on each other. They left around 3. Scott Ashby brought me dinner and talked for 4 hours. Sunday was a good day.
Today Gavan brought me lunch and we're now partly caught up. Tim called and we discussed mind enhancing drugs, we're both for it. And one of my nurses had a deep discussion with me, it went for at least 30 minutes. Chalk up one more friend for Ryan. Today has been a good day.
Scott Ashby re-sent a link to a TED talk, a link Emily had sent previously. I watched it for the first time today and thought it was very relevant, relevant to anyone with a pulse. Here is the link, you're welcome. All hail Emily, queen of the good link.
I'm the type of tired best described with colorful metaphors. My hematocrit was 21 today. I received two transfusions of red blood. Despite this I made it through most of my exercises, I didn't get in the 30 minutes of biking I normally do; I may try to squeeze the biking in later tonight.
It's day six. No chemo today. I'm through the first 5 day round of etoposide and cyclophosphamide. The nelarabine starts tomorrow. The patient information leaflet for nelarabine was pretty funny. It warns of extreme sleepiness, seizures, coma, numbness (peripheral neuropathy), weakness, and paralysis. Right under that section there is a section entitled "Call the doctor right away if:" which proceeds to list most of the symptoms previously mentioned. They were clever enough to not list coma and seizure. I suppose a seizure or coma is one of those "don't call us we'll call you" situations.
I look forward to seeing Emily on Wednesday. Until then I will rest and focus on taking good care of myself. The best parts of this life pass the fastest. What's up with that? Human perception is daffy. When something hurts terribly the passage of time slows. When we're having a great time it's over too soon. I recommend that we look into reversing this issue of perception.
It's time to sign off. If I don't write in the next day or two, no worries, I may just be enjoying a momentary coma. Here is the picture of the day, redheaded Emily and Max:
I have to pass all the credit for that link right on to Whitney. It was a good one, huh? All hail Whitney, rightful queen of the good link.
ReplyDeleteHere, let's share with everyone: http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html
That is a great piece. I love Ted Talks and I needed this one. It is nice to hear concrete things you can do to direct your mind where you want it to go rather than being at it's mercy. When life gets all nuts and you feel out of control it feels good to have a way to regain some of that control. it is going to take practice and I already do some of those things, but I am going to make it a point to do all.
DeleteBeautiful picture!