Good Man Yourself
Less sleepy today, thank goodness. We’re on Day 4 of Round 2, which means I’ve finished one of the chemo drugs (the one looking like Kool-Aid), and just have the other two for today and tomorrow. The first dose was given in a 30-minute drip at 10:30. Around noon I felt some of the requisite fatigue come in, but much less than yesterday. I was still able to do things like knit, read email, and think about what to write here. The fatigue wore off after a couple of hours.
I was even able to eat lunch and have it stay down. This afternoon with the second dose going for about 20 minutes, my tummy’s a little less settled again and I’m getting a little drowsy. They’ve given me some “anti-sickness” medicine which I’m hoping will do the job with dinner (dammit).
By the way, while I was eating lunch one of the nurses came over. She asked how I felt while eating the food, and I said I was actually doing okay.
“Good man yourself,” she replied, and continued on her way. I really enjoy hearing phrases common to Ireland but still new to me, even though we moved here more than 12 years ago.
Donate, Donate, Donate
Today for the first time I went through the blog posts in early March which were made by Elana because I was too out-of-it, and because my eyes had just gotten messed up and I couldn’t use the laptop anyway. It’s amazing to see the experience from another person’s viewpoint. There is also no doubt the experience (thus far, anyway) of this round of chemo is remarkably different from my first.
One thing that really struck me in E’s writings was the note that one of the bag of platelets was dated just a week before it was being given to me. As these bags of blood and platelets come in to me, I haven’t really thought about the fact that another human being actually took the time out of their day to stop, sit, and donate this thing which is helping me get better.
So little effort to help make someone else’s life better—or be part of why they still have their life, period. Holy shit. (Insert emotional flood here.)
Funny Coincidence
On February 23rd, I had the fun experience of being interviewed for a popular public radio show in America called “The Story with Dick Gordon“. They were interested in talking about my experience having survived a really bad car accident in 1993. The host Dick Gordon was physically at the station WUNC in North Carolina; I spoke with him from a (tiny tiny booth-like) radio station studio here in Dublin. In our chat, I shared what I could about how it felt to come out of aphasia, find my memory remapping itself, and lots of other things.
Less than two weeks later, I was admitted to the hospital on Monday March 7th with leukemia. And my interview of “The Story” was broadcast and released for online listening the very next day.
I’m interpreting this as an incredible coincidence laden with good, positive karma.
