Sorry for the lull, doing okay

I hope I didn't set unrealisitc expectations with some of my initial blogging.  I don't expect to always be able to have a new post every day (let alone twice a day, as per my previous posting).  So please don't worry if there's a bit of a gap, and please don't assume that it means bad news.  Nevertheless, my general plan is for reasonably frequest updates, and I didn't intend for there to be this extended lull.

I had planned on a more extensive posting tonite, but I'm feeling pretty exhausted right now, so I'll just give a brief update right now and then write more later when I get a chance.

My Dad arrived last Wednesday, and it's been nice having both of my parents around.  And it's one of the things that's been keeping me busy and not blogging -- I want to get as much as I can out of the time I have with them, and with them living all the way across the country (in the suburbs of Philadelphia), it's not that often that I get to spend an extended period of time with them.

I started my second round of chemo this past week.  Physically I feel I'm continuing to improve.  I'm especially happy that the near constant coughing from months' past has significantly diminished, although not entirely gone away.  The GI problems from the middle of the first round of chemo are mostly gone -- the verdict is still out on whether or not they will return in the middle of this round.  What's really nice is that the range of foods that I'm able to eat has vastly expanded.  I still need to watch what I eat somewhat, but to a first order I'm able to eat most of what I might want to.  And my appetite is pretty good right now -- actually, for the past few days I've been getting hella hungry reasonably frequently.  But that level of the munchies may be mostly due to the Prednisone.  Oh yeah, I'm also definitely starting to put on some weight.  I'm trying not to be too obsessive about checking the scale, or reporting daily on weights precise to the tenths of pounds, but I feel that I am solidly into the 130s now, even at the low point of the day.  Here's hoping that I stay there.

It has been a bit of a rough time recently emotionally, however.  Looking back on the first round, I suspect that some of the general feelings of well being that I experienced and generally attributed to the Prednisone were actually due to the morphine.  And this round I made a conscious decision not to take any morphine unless I felt it was truly necessary, and so far I have been able to stick to that and avoid it.  But I've been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster of late, and that might be at least part of the reason.  It's also part of the reason for the lull in the blog.

Anyway, I will write more later, although it's possible that I might wait until my parents have departed (this coming Wednesday) before doing a full catch up.  But right now I need to get to bed.  I'm exhausted.

Somehow even my "brief" posts seem to ramble on a bit.  I guess I'm just like that.