Wonderful Christmas

We had a quiet Christmas this year. On Christmas Eve, we went to my brother's home in Spring Hill. Unfortunately, I didn't feel well, so we left early. I was running a temperature, which is bad news for a cancer patient, and feeling sick to my stomach. On the 25th, I was tired. On the 26th I went for chemo and then had 3 terrific days. Pamm, Bill and Liz came in on Wednesday and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday were great. I crashed on Saturday about mid-morning. That's the life of a cancer patient on chemotherapy, but we lived it up on those three days. One of my chemo side effects is I can't taste anything...all foods taste metallic or like cardboard. Last week, my mouth was not sore and I could eat spicy things. Dr. Kumar told Russ and I that the best Indian food was at a restaurant called Laziz on McMullen Booth Road. The five of us went there and had a terrific meal. If you like Indian food, try this place. We all had either chicken or lamb curries and it was wonderful...I could even taste it. Everyone left on Saturday, about the time I crashed. I was so glad that I was good while they were here.

The cumulative effect of chemotherapy is not pleasant. The side effects I get - fatigue, sore mouth, cough, sore throat, back pain, headache and low blood counts are bearable but very unpleasant. They seem to last longer each time I get another dosage. I do get shots to boost the red blood counts and the white counts, but they remain very low and are a constant threat for infection. My next chemo treatment is Wednesday. I thought that would be the end of it....but alas....I am still responding to the drugs in a positive manner so Dr. Kumar is extending the chemo once a week for twelve more weeks. Egad...that's three more months of feeling like hell most of the time....only having a few good days each month and not being able to function like a whole person, unless the chemo is different for those 12 sessions. I want to go back to work and start to live my life with some semblance of normalcy.Possibly my cocktail will be different and that will be the case. Sorry to vent...but if I have failed to respond to many of you, I wanted you to understand why. I appreciate all the calls and cards and emails....I read them all...but sometimes I am just not up to responding.