More of the same

Hi there.  The last two weeks have been pretty rough for me.  I usually wake up to a wave of nausea that comes out of nowhere.  It passes pretty quickly (15-20 minutes) but leaves me exhausted and feeling ill.  This has meant that most days are spent on the couch watching TV and snuggling with the dogs (which is pretty good medicine).  Typically I start to feel better (not good, just better) around the middle of the afternoon and with the help of a different kind of medicine entirely, I am usually able to finally eat something.  Never let anyone tell you that marijuana isn't a helpful drug.  I would be down to 100 pounds if it wasn't for the appetite stimulation.  Today, however, is a good day so far - no pukes or even dry heaves.  If you'll recall, I am currently on the "two week on/one week off" chemo cycle (with the eight pills per day) and this week is an off week so I'm pretty sure that's why I am feeling so much better.  I have a doctor appointment on Friday where hopefully I can be prescribed a stronger anti-nausea pill.  (The smoking helps nausea, too but I also have Zofran that I take every eight hours and Compazine for any breakthrough illness.)

Speaking of TV, I have been watching quite a lot and it sort of surprises me how much lower my standards have gotten.  Instead of feeling as though I should spend my limited time watching classic movies and reading all those books I have stacked up, I am more content to watch Project Runway marathons, House Hunters, Always Sunny repeats and read Entertainment Weekly.  I guess the thing they all have in common is that I can be in and out of consciousness and not worry that I have missed anything important while I doze.

My entertainment consumption mirrors my eating habits of late, too.  I still love a garden fresh tomato (hooray for tomato season!) and other fruits and veggies (except raw green peppers - keep them away!) but other things, previous favorites, make me gag.  Things like mushrooms.  I had never met a mushroom I didn't like until the smell of them cooking became literally gut wrenching.  My tastes evolve almost weekly.  For instance, I wanted nothing more than a Subway sandwich one day and Dave very graciously went to get me one.  This lead to another the next day and so on.  I'm starting to tire of them at this point but I'm sure there will be another fast food craving coming along.  I haven't been eating a lot of junk food like this since my early twenties but if that's all that sounds good then what are you going to do?  Previous craving include fried chicken from KFC (with a biscuit and slaw, please) and sometimes Taco Bell..  Normally all this crap would have me concerned for my health but since I don't have any issues with cholesterol or sodium and I have to keep my weight up, I don't worry about it all.

Dave is doing well and doing good.  He did have a summer cold that lingered for too long but he's all better now.  He's also been relatively busy with housework projects (hello clean windows!) and the always-needing-attention garden and yard.  He's also been helping out our older neighbors with a few of their projects.  He does still have plenty of time to read, go to the gym or pool, meet up with friends for lunch etc.  He is doing his best to enjoy his temporary retirement.

We are right at the one year mark since my diagnosis and it's been quite a year.  Ups and downs?  You bet.  The bad parts are pretty easy to figure out but at least we got to balance that with lots of visitors who gave up their time, put their lives temporarily on hold, and came out to see us.  Oftentimes more that once.  It has been great to see everyone and we wouldn't have changed a thing but now we realize, after seeing we had no scheduled visitors for August or September, we decided to give ourselves a little break and declare these two months "our time".  As great as our friends and family have been about understanding our situation (e.g. not expecting us to make them dinner every night) it is still work to prepare for a visitor and when you have them on average of two or three times a month, it adds up to a long year.  So please, if you have come to see us in the past and/or wish to visit in the future, do not feel as though you are unwelcome.  We're just recharging the batteries right now and as has been true since we moved in together, we love having visitors.

Also, having lots of out of town guests means seeing less of our local friends.  All you SE Michiganders who might want to get together for lunch or something should give us a call.  We aren't trying to shut everyone out during these two months, we just want you to go somewhere else to sleep when bed time rolls around.  :)

Hope you're well and enjoying this mild weather!