#itsallgross

Yesterday was the last day I had radiation.  That’s the new good news.  I admit I will miss visiting the techs down in Radiation Oncology.  They’re a great bunch of people, particularly Gerard who cheers me on each day with comments like “You’re totally rocking this thing” or “Doing great!  You got this!”  This morning he saw that Gordon Lightfoot had come up on his Pandora playlist, so he paused it so that I could listen too since yesterday I mentioned how much I love ole Gord.  Just a truly nice person, and he’s made the whole experience a zillion times better than I expected it would be.  

The bad news is the radiation is destroying my poor little neutrophils, as expected.  I won’t be able to leave the room much longer until they rebound. That won’t happen for weeks.  I will be trapped in here until then, with only the nurses, the MSK version of the Clown Car and my nausea to keep me company.  

The last round of chemo started today.  That’s good news.  The bad news is that it’s purportedly going to make me sicker than I’ve ever been. We’ll see. Doom and gloom is what they do best in hospitals.  I am tired of the nasty saliva that inexplicably returned last week.  It’s not improving here in the hospital where keeping drinks cold is extremely challenging.  Room temp water tastes and smells terrible to me, and I am not drinking enough of it.  I don’t have many other options since everything gets warm before I finish it.  Oh joy! And I have NO appetite at all.

Tomorrow I start some creepy medicine to protect my kidneys that is derived from rabbits.  No really.  They have to check my vitals every 15 minutes at first to make sure I don’t have an adverse reaction, then every hour for a while. Gotta love the poison and the stuff to counteract the poison.  

Almost done.  Almost done.  I keep telling myself that.  Almost done.

I’m ready to go home now! It’s Day -5.  I have over three weeks minimum to go.