home but tired

i'm sitting at home but too tired to stand up and use a proper keyboard. so, more single-finger typing with no spell-checker. it's a tough life :-)

tired ? mostly my own fault, i think.

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deb picks me up friday. we're home before ten pm. then i stay up till 1am (or was it later ?) trying to solve a programming problem...it's the sort of thing i enjoy, usually. this one, though, is getting nowhere. partly because i'm too tired to really think. also because i am trying to write code in an area where i am totally ignorant. as are the people who flood the web with "examples" and "explanations".

so i spend many hours awake to no great purpose. just pleased to have finished a week of daily chemo drip-feeds.

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saturday, of course, i am exhausted.

the plan is: give a blood sample at a local collection centre. have coffee & cake. go to ivy clinic for ... just a quick injection. then enjoy the afternoon. possibly go for a short run. so what happens really is...

the plan is good. there's a long wait at the blood collection centre. i add to the delay: i have a card naming the required tests. i should have filled in a lot of detail on the card. i haven't. so the blood collecting nurse is delayed while we complete the card.

still time for coffee and cake. i have lost my appetite for coffee -- changing taste-bud preferences, water still tastes flat. i drink half my coffee. we drive to the clinic.

not too crowded at the clinic, i'm soon lined up to be injected. except that the injection is not on my chart so the drug is not ready. i wait while it's fetched. deb comes in to sit with me while we wait.

this drug is injected into my stomach. plenty of fat to pump it into, says the nurse. true enough :-) though today's weight is no more than yesterday's. i'm still 15kg heavier than pre-cancer. side-effects for this drug could include fever (possibly dangerous) and aching arms and shoulders (take panadol unless it gets really bad).

something about neutrophils? and white cells... this drug will stimulate white cell growth, to help me fight disease. rapid white cell growth may cause pain.

i must have said it before, the treatment is far worse -- in the short term -- than the disease. sheesh. i was feeling quite well till this cycle of chemo. feeling well ? well, feeling a lot better... not to worry, by the end of this day's post i should be not ... too... bad :-)

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we get home for lunch. oh, deb had parked the car at the hospital and left it unlocked with the key in. but we won't mention that :-)

i have a bland lunch then sleep for hours. deb goes for a run. later i go for a walk, two km, very slow. i feel as though i have just run a long, fast trail. i tell deb that i definitely need larger clothes, no way i fit into what i now have.

more sleeping, more reading.

i eat a reasonable -- and delicious -- dinner. my digestion struggles to cope but eventually feels better for good food. i feel well enough to stand at the pc, to try to solve my programming problem. no luck.

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when my stomach is upset i prefer to sleep sitting rather than lying down. and to sleep within easy reach of a toilet... also i have been snoring so loudly that it wakes me up. i can't roll over to a less snoring position or my stomach complains. painfully. (acid reflux? all part of the fun :-)

it's now a bit after midnight. my stomach is not happy but it's not threatening. i feel a bit flushed but deb checked earlier, temperature is normal. i may go to bed. deb will just have to put up with my loud snoring... probably better than worrying about why i'm not in bed.

====    Dr Nick Lethbridge  /  Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the solution." … Einstein
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dying for you to read my blog: notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au :-)
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