July 2nd — Happy 49th Anniversary Mom and Dad! Greg and I will celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary this fall. Funny how all those milestones seem to mean more these days.
I’ve been delighted that this round of chemo hasn’t been as bad as the first two. When I saw Lisa, the nurse practitioner at the oncologist, for my weekly lab tests, she and the nurse doing my blood draw decided I may have a bit of a steroid-induced mania. I was talking fast and with a lot of energy and seemed euphoric that I had escaped the worst of the chemo nausea. I reminded Lisa that all of those descriptions would be me on a usual day. I’m chatty and have a lot of energy, and who wouldn’t be euphoric about a lack of queasiness? But, apparently, I had the symptoms of steroid-induced mania. As long as I’m sleeping fine and not moving from euphoria to depression in mere minutes, no one worries about the mania. I guess I’d rather be euphoric and manic than sad and depressed. Lisa commented that many of their cancer patients on a steroid buzz are up cleaning their attics due to the extra energy. I bet that’s an image you weren’t expecting!
On another note, today I found out that my blog is a little bit famous. Greg showed me that two friends of ours mentioned my blog and my fight with cancer on their own blogs. I feel very honored that other people think that my journey is worth reading and referring friends to the site. Ron is a former co-worker of Greg’s and Robert is a college friend of mine.
Ron, whom I only met once, recently lost his father to cancer and our hearts go out to him and his family. The fear and anxiety that come with a brush with the cancer world are awful for anyone touched by this disease.
I was particularly amused by Robert’s comments about my blog. He finds my journey “harrowing” and describes me as having an “almost ghoulish sense of humor,” while remaining one of the most upbeat people he knows. If that’s not a perfectly appropriate description of my approach to cancer, I don’t know what is. But Robert is a wonderful writer and can turn the phrase with the best of them, so I’m not surprised at his word choices. Instead of having an irreverent approach to cancer, I’ll think of myself as having a ghoulish sense of humor from now on.
My college roommate was diagnosably manic and BOY was she fun to hang out with! Enjoy it.
Let’s hope THAT Gallery photo of Daniel doesn’t end up in his high school yearbook!