the flush

Weight: 234 lbs

I am six weeks out today, so they flushed my port. Since I am seeing my regular doc for a checkup next week, I asked them to do the blood work for that appointment today to save me an unnecessary stick next week. The nurse was positive about my neuropathy saying that it will completely go away. I love that talk.  It seems to have improved slightly. Second time on the treadmill this morning in 4 days. Did a mile and a quarter today. Lifted and stretched a couple days back. Tentative schedule: treadmill walk one day; next day lifts and stretches; third day off; then repeat. We'll see how that works. Those fast-twitch, leg muscles need the 24-48 hours to build.

Weight puts me a couple pounds above when we started all of this, but that follows a great deal of indulgence in restaurants over three weeks in AZ. Portion sizes reduced now. However, tapering back on one glass of wine with dinner or prior to dinner every day. What an exquisite indulgence!

Still fatigued, but maybe workouts are contributing. More often than not napping in the afternoon for an hour and sometimes 30-40 min after breakfast in the morning. I remember when I was 40 and first started swimming. I worked myself up to one mile non-stop, free-style per outing, three outings per week. My best times were usually about 38 minutes for the mile, about twice as long as the good guys in the pool. But, it took about three months to work up to this, and I napped frequently as my body responded to the extra demands on it during that period. Hopefully, that is what is happening now.

As to the one episode of sweating at night. We'll write that off as a false positive, probably triggered by too much sugar after dinner that night, or too much heat in the house.  Whatever...

maybe, just maybe

Well, we are home. An uneventful trip up the 15 between the pitiful storms that constitute this year's winter. I have been suffering with an upper respiratory infection shared among my sisters-in-law and my wife. I believe the worst of that has passed. It finally involved some recurrent sinus headaches (shades of chemo past!) and a perpetual drip. We all personally supported Kimberly-Clark (Kleenex?). But last night was an improvement both in pain levels and in sleeping. Energy levels were also low.

But this morning feels better. I am going to attempt a few thousand steps on the tread mill and see what outcomes that leads to. I had no idea that during recovery from the chemo the residual neuropathy would interfere so dramatically with getting back in some kind of physical shape. It has, in spades. But, I think that there has been some receding of the neuropathy lately, in my hands and feet. (I can never seem to feel it in my lips--other than with spicy food--so I don't know about my trumpet playing at the moment. When I played last Friday, I was good for about 20 min. Damnation!) Walking looks and feels seriously old. Head hair is regrowing as is a sort-of beard. It's wait-and-see there, too. Probably time for another pic.

We are home only briefly, flying back to PHX in 2 weeks and motoring from there to Coronado in SoCal for about a week.  More as I know more.

A big shout-out to Sharon in HA, who has just completed another round of this bs and looks fabulous!

uh oh

Last night I awoke sweaty. I have noted throughout the recuperative process that my ability to withstand cold has been wanting. I get shivery rather easily. I am not going to make too much of one episode, but am aware that this is a symptom that bears watching, if symptom it is. I was not soaked, but my T was damp, and it awakened me further when I realized what had happened.. Other reasons: my sis-in-law keeps the house fairly warm at night and I did have a more full glass of wine last night than has been my custom during some of the "wine tasting" I have been doing preparatory to filling the wine cooler at home. In addition, those around me are fighting upper respiratory infections and I still have some otitis media in my right ear. So we'll keep a weather eye out and, hopefully, last night's occurrence will be a one-off.

Doh! moments

My wife and her sister--at whose Scottsdale residence we are ensconced--have been trading sore throats. They have now included me in the circle. For me, the sore throat  has manifested as secondary to otitis media. The main symptom is the throat pain that one gets upon swallowing or yawning, the result of which ordinarily would be an equalization of pressure between the middle (i.e., media) ear and the throat. In this case the pressure equalization is less than wholly successful because the eustachian tube that connects the middle ear with the throat--the apparent major function of which is to equalize said pressure--is plugged with mucous.  I plugged mine as a result of playing my trumpet vigorously with a music colleague from our jam group in Cache Valley who also happens, through a variety of personal circumstances, to be spending a portion of his winter in Scottsdale. The session was a good time in which I learned that I am nowhere really very far along the comeback trail, except at the beginning, but also that whatever ear I have left has not deserted me along the way.  I was able to play about 20 minutes or so before my lips fell into the mouthpiece. The neuropathy responsible for this has not yet receded. But having brought no music with me I had to do everything by ear. It was a useful exercise and I must do more of it, instead of the insidious practice of reading the chord changes from a lead sheet all the time.


In any case, the point of today's post is that I had to medicate yesterday with aspirin against the vicious pain produced by swallowing and I used the Canadian aspirins I have with the few grains of codeine in them. (They are essentially like a Tylenol 3.)  Well, these pills also contain a slug of caffeine contra the usual narcosis of the codeine. This is a principal reason I am typing this at 5:30 a.m. Pop! After a fabulous 4-5 hours of very deep and restorative sleep, I awakened, not to return to Morpheus. However, the usual edema seems lessened and I feel some itch in the balls and arches of my feet. I take that to mean that healing of the neuropathy continues apace, since itch is on the correct side of the pain continuum.  My joints feel considerably better this morning, and I am going to either continue the aspirin course or switch over to some Aleve, because the anti-inflammatory effects of these NSAIDs may also contribute to lowering the amount of edema produced by the neuropathy. Anything to move this process along.

ho hum, another shitty day in paradise

Well one cannot complain much. The weather for our stay in AZ has been pretty good. We have had a number of 70+ degree days that have offered the chance to increase the body's uptake of Vitamin D. Yes, I do mean sitting by the pool with my body exposed to El Sol. What could happen? More cancer? Too bad. In the larger scheme of things it will be just a few minutes, and I am given to understand that skin cancer, all other things equal, is more likely to owe to the several or more sunburns one gets as a child (and I got 'em) than anything that happens at this age. In any case it is only for a strictly controlled 15 minutes a shot. 


We have had a great chance to visit with relatives who live here (and we with them temporarily), and with friends who are passing through from Utah or are in permanent or temporary residence here themselves. Next week that will end and we will head home for Jan to conduct a meeting and me to get my port flushed and to see my regular doc who, I am sure, will have something to say about pending atherosclerosis, hernia, and osteopenia  all of which turned up in the CT scans. See why worry about a little skin cancer at the age of 73 when one of these other conditions is likely to get you first?


My condition: I think I am getting stronger. Less fatigue, fewer afternoon naps, lower frequency of whizzing during the night. Alimentary canal excellent. Pretty good sleeping during the non-whiz times. Some exercise walking; some stretching,; some lifting of light weights.  On the con side: the damn neuropathy seems to have plateaued. I still have deep aches in my fingers and pins and needles in my foot soles and toes. Walking is difficult if I am on my feet for some time. My knee and hip joints don't want to hold me. The edema has receded but has not gone completely. So, on that score I am sort of in limbo. Trumpet playing time is slowly increasing. Time will tell whether I am left with some residuals. 


But compared to chemotherapy, I feel fantastic. Wait, I think I hear the dinner bell...

update from AZ

Actually got some face time in the sun yesterday. And the sun felt good and hot. Supposed to rain today. Yeah, right, maybe a 10% chance. The biggest change for me this week--not having to resume chemo--is my tiredness. I have been napping after breakfasts, after lunches, sometimes both, and still doing 6-8 hrs sleep per night. Maybe, just maybe, that is a sign of healing? The neuropathy continues. For now, it seems in stasis. I have walked a mile a day for the last couple days and am stretching and doing some mild lifts from my old program. Typically, the neuropathy rears up the next day as a consequence. Nevertheless, it is back on the street again today.

sunshine

Drove through fog, snow, rain, sleet and all in middle Utah to get to Las Vegas Thursday, and thence to Mesa yesterday. It is sunny, it is warmer. My neuropathy continues to recede but I still have some residual edema in my feet the balls and toes of which are still sore. Ditto  my fingers. But it is, overall, less. Most of all, I feel old, out of breath, overweight. Monday forthcoming will be the first time in 5 months that I do not start another chemo cycle. Let's see what continued improvements occur.