Today was round 3 for the chemo along with my usual dose of radiation. Every day at radiation, I see the same few people that are all waiting around for their treatments and we chat about our general experiences and talk very candidly about what we are all going through. It is actually a good thing for me every day to hear what others are going through and to find some common ground with people that are dealing with the same issues and concerns and treatments. It is a very different world that you step in to when someone tells you that you have cancer both for you individually, but also for all those people that are close to you. After radiation, I came back out to the waiting room and sat down with the group that I talk to everyday and we chatted about various topics, including our original diagnosis and the shock that you receive when random doctor #1 enters the room to tell you that the biopsy came back as cancer and then launches into what all they are going to do about it, when it is hard to advance your mind past the sucker-punch that you just received. Jessica had told them that I am writing about everything in a daily blog and we talked about that a little, mainly that this is my one outlet and that I would much rather do this than actually talk about it. I will say that everyone I have talked with is very positive about the blog and consensus seems to be that it is a good thing for me to be doing and that is nice to hear. Anyway, along these same lines, we got to talking about the reaction people have when you start talking about all the things that you are going through. There is usually a moment where you can tell the eyes begin to glaze over and the panicked look on their face becomes more and more evident and then you realize that they have no idea what to say in this situation and are frantically trying to come up with something positive to say. But what is there to say? It goes back to what I was trying to say yesterday with my reasoning for writing this blog. I do not want sympathy nor am I looking for anyone to feel sorry for me or worry about me. I want to present what is going on, the things that I am struggling with and what I am experiencing and thinking about on a daily basis. I probably veered off course here again, so I will try to remain on topic. The main point here is that I enjoy my chats in the morning with my cancer peeps, it is definitely nice to talk to others who have to endure the same (an sometimes worse) types of treatment.
Felt good today after chemo, I am still eating well. We met up with mom and dad at Papadeaux for dinner and that was awesome, thank you Boppy! I have to take my nausea medicine about every 8 hours, and I could definitely tell this evening when it was time for another pill. I could take one at 5:30 and by that point I would say that it was just about time. I started to feel nauseous and light headed around 5, but the pill begins to help me fairly quickly after I take it. My weight is still right around where I started, and my blood pressure is rock solid. That is one good side effect from having to see doctors ALL THE TIME now. Doctors used to always tell me my blood pressure was somewhat high, and I would tell them that it was due to my extreme aversion to being in the doctors office. Now it has just become routine and my blood pressure is usually right where it needs to be. If I am going in for something that I am worried about, it can elevate, but these days I don't worry about too much.
Now for a quick discussion of my new addiction, thanks to my mother. She had a bunch of genealogy stuff laid out when I went to her house today so I started looking through it all. Now I am hooked. I now have an every increasing family tree for us that I am working on and already making some good progress. We are all the way back to the early 1800's on my mothers maternal side of the family and I have some good leads on a lot of missing pieces. I have always been somewhat interested in familial lineage, but sitting down and looking at it and then starting to write down names and dates makes me want to research more and more. Speaking of that, I took a break to write this entry and now I think it is time to return to my family tree.
Mom's line is the better documented, for sure. And interesting. Now Dad's line has some very interesting parts. Bets & my favorite two bits are:
ReplyDelete1. Picturing grandma Martin (Dad's mom) and Aunt Clara (her sister), both of whom I'd expect you to remember (at least vaguely), riding bareback their horse across the Oklahoma territory (pre-statehood) chasing jackrabbits for dinner. One, or both, of them had a job when young giving out blankets or food or some such to the natives that were dumped in Oklahoma thru the Trail of Tears.
2. What ever happened to Dad's dad? Barber in the Rice Hotel. Lively kind of guy. Basically given the boot when dad was young (Clara and Jack would support grandma and dad and Louise if she ditched him) and he disappeared. Strongest rumor I've heard was he went to California. Whenever someone up here asks me if I'm related to so-and-so Albin I always have to qualify my answer with "maybe".
Though I suppose that isn't really genealogy, just family stories. And probably not the sort of stories I'm supposed to talk about. :-)