So Far Not Awful

Just finished the first round of monthly chemo last night, and now have a leisurely three weeks till the next one.

People have been asking me how it's going, and I initially responded "so far so good."

That's not a precise statement.  So I'm changing it to "so far not awful."  Been eating, doing some exercise, food still tastes the way it should (still working on coffee and wine).  Margaritas still taste delicious.  I am hopeful it stays not awful through at least the first couple of months.  You'll certainly read about it when that changes.

I think I promised a blog post on my "12 days of healthcare."  Over the holidays, I went to a lot of doctors, partly to catch up on things I needed to do but had put off over the year.  I came up with the outline of a disturbing version of the 12 Days of Christmas, but couldn't quite bring it over the finish line.  So, I'll share the snippets that would have been part of what likely would have been an epic post and amazing new holiday song.

So, it would go like this:

On the 12th day of healthcare, my doctor gave to me:

12 Tappers Tapping - related to my search for a therapist to help me deal with, well, this whole sucky thing.  Still looking, but have ruled out ones who focus on EMDR (thus the tapping).

Nine Tesla's Tesling - had three MRI's over the past few months, each at 3 Tesla's.

Six (point 2) A1c - had my blood sugar checked and it's actually not bad, even though my strategy for gaining back weight included a lot of sugary things.

Three distance lenses - lost my progressive glasses over the holidays.  I worried I'd have to switch to "conservatives", but they allowed me to replace them with new glasses that still make me outraged by Cheeto Voldemort.

Two crowns a-chewing - got one new crown and had another one put back in after it popped off.  I lost it taking a bite of untoasted sourdough bread, the most pitiful way to pop a crown ever.

And one col-on-os-co-py!!!!  Actually just an appointment to talk to a dude about setting it up, but one is supposed to get one at age 50, and I have been putting this off.  Mainly because I don't want to do it.  But it would totally suck to beat brain cancer and then get taken out by colon cancer, or butt cancer, or whatever they are checking for.

I understand this may have veered a bit too far into TMI, but I also think that ship sailed a long time ago.  And it's missing about half of the days of healthcare, but those would have been hilarious.

Someone can feel free to take this, run with it, record it, and please send me royalties.

Oh, and I just started a new phase.  I'm calling this the "Indigo Girls" phase.  Where I am starting to seek my source for some definitive.  Been to the doctor, looked to the children, drank from the fountain, etc.  Not found anything yet, but I have realized that "Closer to Fine" is not a bad song to get stuck in your head.

And one final observation.  One I will chalk up to the new phase and possibly the chemo.  I did have an extended sleep conversation with Beth this week, my old friend/girlfriend from almost 30 years ago who passed away several years ago.  Only one data point, but if others visit, I might need to be concerned.