Power Surge

What a great day!

Okay, the first part was a little spotty, as I had to go in for my weekly blood tests and the phlebotomist seemed slightly less than competent. But he did a fine job hitting my vein and filling two tubes, after I convinced him that he needed to double check the orders because, really, I was due to get two different tests and not just the one he was setting up for.

Then things got better. I had a terrific workout with Jessica. She had me warm up by dribbling a basketball up and down the court and shooting layups at each end. Who knew I could run? Plus, it was just a lot of fun. Jess has been ramping up my workouts since we restarted after the surgery, and it finally feels like I’m working hard again.

I thought I might crash after this longer, tougher workout, but instead I felt energized. So … in the afternoon I began thinking about the annoying branches overhanging the back garden. You might know that I come from a family of gardeners, but you might not know that we all share a fondness for pruning. And that my favorite thing to prune is trees. And that the tool of choice is a pole lopper. Wielding this tool that extends to about 15 feet takes a fair amount of strength and stamina, and I was ecstatic to find that I was up to the challenge. I spent a delightful half hour cutting back the maple and hackberry branches and letting more light into the yard.

So then I crashed, right? Nope. I still had enough energy in reserve to go to the theater. David and I saw a delightfully wacky murder mystery musical called “Murder for Two”, courtesy of my wonderful primary care doc who gave us the tickets under the theory that laughter is the best medicine.

Tomorrow is Cycle 3, Day 1. I’m really glad my chemo schedule includes a rest week, and that I’ve used it to recuperate so well. Chemo is scary; it’s hard to do this thing you know is going to make you feel really crappy for the next 10 days. So it is great to feel strong going in, and to know that as crappy as I will feel over the next 10 days, there’s a good chance that in the 10 days after that I’ll get to feeling pretty good again.