No, I don't feel perfect, and I continue to have relatively minor physical issues. The biggest current annoyance continues to be the hoarseness of my voice. I'm not sure if it's a consequence of chemo attacking my mucous membranes, or perhaps a side effect of having been coughing for about 8 months straight before I got treatment. And it's not just my voice -- I find that I'm overly sensitive to a number of things. Smoke from seasoning the cast iron skillet too much bothers me; I can't hover too close to the dishwasher when it's on because of the fumes from the bleach in the detergent; and I'm constantly pondering what the source is of all sorts of cooking smells that I detect as I'm biking around town.
But those relatively minor concerns aside, I feel better physically than I have in a long time. In many ways better than at any time since before I started to get sick last summer. I know by now not to get too optimistic -- there will certainly be more down periods coming up. But right now I'm at the tail end of week 3 of round 3, and I've had a really good week.
We did indeed go on the family bike ride as planned. It stayed reasonably warm and there was a bunch of wind. I flew my stunt kite (a birthday gift from Lorien's parents from a couple of years back), and we bought Dylan a smaller toddler-friendly kite. He was content to sit on Mommy or Daddy's lap while one of us flew it. I think he might have been a little scared to try to hold on to line hby himself.
The next day (yesterday), at the peak of the warm weather, we went on a hike in Tilden in search of wildflowers. Rather than taking Dylan in the Kelty (a backpack carrier), we tried out the Chariot (our bike trailer but in a jogging stroller configuration). I was able to handle the hike, including taking turns pushing Dylan over some pretty rough and hilly terrain. I think next time we'll stick with the Kelty, though.
And today I got on my road bike for the first time since getting sick. The difference between it and my commuting bike is pretty amazing. I love how riding a well tuned road bike with clipless pedals almost feels like an extension of your own body sometimes. I wasn't sure if I was going to feel up for it completely when heading out, but I did one of our standard loops all the way up into the hills. I didn't want to push myself too hard, so I did allow myself use of the granny gear a couple of times, which I ordinarily don't do. (For those of you who aren't cyclists, that's the smallest of the three gears on the front chain ring, giving you the lowest range of gears.) We'll see how I feel tomorrow, but for now I don't feel any particularly ill effects from the ride. On the contrary, it was kind of exhilarating -- certainly the opportunity to ride fast down the hill on Centennial Drive was.
I'm also continuing to eat and drink well. Lorien and I had a wonderful dinner last night -- she made a fish soup with some halibut that our friend Morley had brought back from Alaska a while ago, but I wasn't up for doing anything with at the time because of eating issues (so we froze it). We also polished off a full bottle of a lovely white wine -- I don't think we've been able to accomplish that since I got sick either. And tonite I had a couple of beers -- I think that's also a first since getting sick. And earlier in the week I even had a cocktail, again my first in quite some time (a Sloe Gin Fizz).
And the parade of sweets continues. We just had the first sample of the latest batch of homemade ice cream -- this time just a basic chocolate. And cooling in the kitchen right now is another loaf of banana bread. I'm going to bring some of that, as well as the rest of the ginger snaps, to chemo tomorrow.
Which brings me back to the impending round 4. Which will surely have some low points, probably during week 2. But for right now I'm just content to sit back and enjoy week 3.
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| Wildflowers in Tilden Park |
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| Wildflowers in Tilden Park |
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| Wildflowers in Tilden Park |
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| The view from the Lawrence Hall of Science. Sorry for the crappy picture --
it's from a phone, on a hazy day, looking into the late afternoon sun.
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3 comments:
You biked to Lawrence Hall?? Rode down Centennial?? That was hard for me to do when I lived in Berkeley, and I wasn't doing chemo!! Wow.
ps -- Dylan is simply adorable.
Well, it does help to have a nice road bike. It's a lot harder to get up in the hills on my commuting bike, regardless of chemo.
It might not be until towards the end of this next cycle until I have enough energy to attempt it again, but I would like to when I feel up for it.
I could write a comment as long as your blog entry, but I'll save that for when I see you or we chat voice. Great work on the biking. I haven't biked to the Ferry in months. Just too tired from work and dealing with two kids. Much love, -jg
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