Oops, I skipped a week, guess nothing happened. I started phase 4 of chemo on Thursday, peed brick red (doxorubicin) for a day and I am waiting for the numbness to start in my hands and feet (vincristine). Two more Thursday treatments and then no more shots until mid-Oct. No nausea. I started the steroid dexamethasone on Thursday, and take it for two weeks. I woke up Friday and had no backache, no elbow pain, no neck pain, and had a steroid buzz all day. I have to watch the timing on those bad boys or I’ll be up all night. The peach fuzz on my skull is going to fall out again, and my eyebrows are short-lived. So what.
Same old same old otherwise, trying to stay in shape, working out 4 times a week, some yoga, surfing, golf practice (not accomplishing anything), and walking the dog. We have this nice south swell this weekend, which was hyped as the swell of a generation but is nothing we don’t see almost every year at least once. Every surfer within 50 miles of the coast is out and it is untenable, 25 guys on a peak that holds 6 guys, 5 guys taking off on every wave, what a zoo. I’ll wait for it to fade a little. Beauch and I went down to Rincon (the most classic right wave in CA, near Santa Barbara) on Monday aft. hoping the S swell would hit there on Tues am, but it was knee high at best. The only good thing about that is nobody was there, for a reason.
Mike has recovered from his cold, Dana is sick with a cold, and John is rocking. He has new veneers on his teeth, so they gave him the title role in the school play, Dracula. He will also be in the Tempest, role unknown as yet. What a stud.
I may take an overnighter into Big Sur tomorrow night, see if the jade got churned up by the big swell, maybe surf Sand Dollar beach. I am burping and hiccupping like crazy, maybe from the steroids, so I should drink some beer and force the issue to a bubble. Could be explosive. If it wasn’t for the fact I have leukemia, this lifestyle would be alright, like retirement. There is this nagging issue, in the background, that I probably survive this ordeal and then what?
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John Da Man,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on getting to Phase 4. Each step is positive progression and one more move closer to a clean slate.
"Peed brick red." That same thing happened to me in Korea years ago, but it wasn't from doxorubicin. I think her name was Kim Sunyam.
"Woke up...no backache, no elbow pain, no neck pain..." For me, that's the only positive benefit from mixing both a manhattan and a martini. Same goes for burping and hiccupping like crazy.
Sounds like you're getting back to some degree of normalcy with respect to the physical activity. That's very good news. Sorry the golf practice isn't working out so well. My philosophy is that you get a lot more golf benefit out of just buying new shit vs. practicing. New shit always makes you play better. I just got the new Ping G5 driver and a new set of Callaway Big Bretha irons and summarily shot a 79 yesterday. See!
Anyway, not much new here in Bamaland, except the place is nuts this time of year with college football. It's either Roll Time of War Eagle everywhere you go.
My best wishes to Dana for a quick recovery.
Mac
then what?
ReplyDeleteMan, you ask the hard questions...which leads me to think that if hospice work or working for ho-spice or some combination of the two don't pan out, maybe you might get into teaching...
lots of people don't know how to have fun being retired, like Mac's friend who ended up needing both the spices.
maybe you could help them.
like an endless-summer camp.
in any case, I guess it will be a whole new blog
Ophelia was swell here--Vin and I tried to find out where the surfline cameras film from so we could arrange to have you go on a certain time so we could wave to you, wave to wave
but needless to say it was too complicated even for him.
he is doing great at the surfing, but me I'm no Gidget...I can't be, I heard she grows up.
p.
Hey, Gidget grows up? I thought she just sprouted big white ears and flew around in hurricanes looking for exceptional surf spots. I don't think she grew up, she just got older, like the rest of us, like John after this ordeal and then we will all sit on our rockers (or off our rockers) on the front porch, telling stories about the waves that got away and working ourselves up into a drooling lather. Who says we have nothing to look forward to?!?
ReplyDeletel.