I've finished my first chemo treatment for this round. Only two days at the infusion center, and the second day was just a couple of hours. I didn't get nauseous, and the Dexamethasone didn't give me the jitters or keep me awake like it did last time. The dose is much less this time. I haven't had any "Shedding" yet, either, as Jay Lake likes to refer to one of the other lovely side effects of chemo. I'm just really fatigued, achy, and feeling a little down. It's harder to keep the morale up when the fatigue sets in.
Diet is fun during chemo. I love fresh fruits and vegetables, and sushi is one of my favorite foods - nigiri sushi, with raw fish. But I shouldn't have those things while my immune system is vulnerable. And then there are the people. I have to avoid people. They have germs. When I go to work on the bus I'll be wearing a mask and gloves to protect me from other people's germs. If my co-workers have colds, I'll probably work from home.
But all of the above is still better than being in the hospital a week out of every month, and having to take injections to increase my white blood count. I can work. I can watch television. I can drive, at least some of the time. I spent a lot of my first day of chemo studying my Chinese textbook. I wouldn't have been able to do that the first time through treatment.
That doesn't mean this is going to be super-easy. Just about the time I start to feel pretty good and back to normal, I'll have to have another treatment. But this time I won't miss OryCon. I've attended OryCon every year since 1990, except for 2003, when I missed it due to chemo. This time my next chemo session isn't until after the convention, so I should be able to attend. That makes me happy. It's a tradition, and this year my honey is a program participant so I want to be there to support him. I'll just have to support him while wearing a mask to avoid the germs.
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