A Feel For Horses

The countdown is on. By the time I post this chapter, I’ll have under five treatments to go. And so far, I’m doing pretty good. My doctors have even told me as much. And while I have vowed to post real-time blogs in order to better capture the emotions of the day, my daily schedule doesn’t make it possible. In other words, this cancer treatment stuff has been real work. At the end of the day, I am spent, consumed both emotionally and physically. And frankly, there’s been no real emotional rip currents going on to speak of. The good news is I’m still sleeping upstairs in my bed (instead of downstairs on the couch with my 120lb canine), driving myself to appointments, swallowing, fighting with my brother, and yelling at my dog. Nevertheless, I remain quite mindful of the fact that the effects of radiology as well as chemotherapy are cumulative meaning I’m not out of the woods quite yet. In fact, their effects will live on for a couple weeks after my last treatment. That’s how they ar...

  Things are Good....This Too Shall Pass I wrote a portion of this chapter while relaxing in my oncology recliner listening to the slow drip of Cisplatin as it fell into a tube and then got pumped into my bloodstream. I was fearing this moment because of what happened to me after my first infusion, falls and hospitalization. Today’s date is Thursday, December 6 th and, as of now, I’m feeling okay and my hemoglobin is within acceptable limits. However, there was a minor glitch which caused my second dose of chemo to be delayed by one day. I was supposed to be treated December 5 th . It happened, yet again, because my hemoglobin levels were too low to safely proceed. Turns out I’m anemic, a condition meaning I don’t produce red blood cells very fast. It also means I’ll probably be getting transfusions throughout the remainder of treatment. By the way, glitches and surprise discoveries are inherent parts of this whole process. That’s because everyone is genetically differen...