Tuesday, August 17, 2010

No New Tale To Tell

Well, here we are a full one week out since I began treatment. Here are my impressions of the first week:

Monday August 9th was my first day of infusion. Other than the Benadryl making me sleepy and the fact that I was there for six and a half hours, I felt no ill effects on day one. Day two I also felt fine (and truth be told started to get a little cocky).

I woke up on Wednesday still feeling good so I thought that I would go on a training walk for the Spirit of Columbus Half-Marathon. I had set out to do eight miles. Everything started out great and the first mile was a breeze. Unfortunately I had neglected to check the weather forecast before I left the house. Really dark clouds rolled in and before I knew it I was walking in a torrential downpour, complete with heavy lightning and thunder. The rain had completely soaked me to the bone within a minuted. Being the dumb-ass that I am, I ignored these as signs that I might want to turn around and go home, so I forged ahead. I walked West on Bethel Rd from Godown Rd to Riverside Dr and back. On the way back, by the time I got to Bethel and Dierker, I felt pretty bad. My feet hurt and my body was starting to get really sore. I finally got home a little over a 1/2 hour later and took a long hot shower. It felt fantastic and I didn't want to get out. I finally did get out and was a complete wreck. I chalked it up to not having trained as much as I should have and that it was just a shock to the system. That turned out not to be the case. For the next two days I had body aches all over like a really bad case of the flu and I was really tired. Lots of Advil and naps.

By Friday morning I was mostly recovered and rode my motorcycle to Dayton to hang out with my good friend Dan and his family. The ride there was fantastic. Rather than taking Interstate 70 West, I took US-42 South to US-35 West. It was a lot more scenic. Lots of long straightaways and fresh pavement. I managed a new speed record for myself too...he he he. I got to Dayton and had no trouble finding Dan's house. We hung out, went out to dinner and then went and saw a Dayton Dragons game at 5/3rd Field. It was a good game but the Dragons ended up falling to the Lugnuts.

Saturday morning we got up and went to have breakfast at a local eatery and then I made my way home. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday was Matsuricon 2010 at the Doubletree Hotel in Worthington. I had promised Miranda that I would take her. So I got home, showered quickly and took Miranda to the con. Miranda had worked for days on her cosplay costume, She had worked on it so hard. I was really proud of her. We got to the convention and went in. She had met a friend from the library there so I was instantly the third wheel. I hung out for about an hour and went home. Saturday evening we went to Val and Kevin's for a party. It was nice seeing a bunch of our good friends again in a relaxed atmosphere. Thanks to Tim for pulling DD duty again.

Sunday we dropped Miranda off at Matsuricon again and Kevin came over to help us transport our new lawnmower home. I also parted with a couple of old friends on Sunday. My 1983 Yamaha Virago 500 and my 1981 CB750k both got new homes on Sunday. They went to Kevin. He's the only one I trusted to make good things happen with both of them and I'm happy that they have a new home where they'll be loved. That Yamaha and I made a lot of good memories together and Kevin was around for most of them so I know she'll get the respect she deserves.

Which brings us to Monday August 16th, my second infusion. It was a much shorter duration this time because I only received one of the three cancer killing drugs. So I was in at 9:00 and out before noon. It was not the six and a half hour ordeal that the 9th was. Today is Tuesday the 17th and again I'm feeling no ill effects yet but I'm not feeling nearly as cocky as I was last week. I'll just wait to see what transpires and I'll let you know next week.