(The following was originally posted on my Carepages blog for family and friends during my treatment.)

Tomorrow (Thursday, June 1) I will have chemo #7 of 8. (Yay!)

I haven’t written the past couple of weeks because there wasn’t anything new to report. It was mostly me sitting in a chair watching time go by. Some of the early days after chemo #6 were not all that pleasant. I had some joint aches and nerve pain and sometimes didn’t feel like eating. Despite Tim making sure I ate. . . something. . . sometimes more than I thought I would. . . I lost four pounds, but admittedly, I’m not sad about that and had been eating way too much anyway. (Blame it on the steroids.) I’m still eating whatever I want, just a lot less of it.

After several days of not feeling all that well, I flipped on my Netflix. I made the mistake of watching a movie that turned out to be rather depressing and needed something to cheer me up. I decided to watch some of the Undercover Boss shows. I like the surprises the CEOs learn and how they try to affect change with their companies and the people they encounter.

In one of the shows, a CEO of Waste Management had been given the job of collecting blowing debris of a windy hill. His counterpart could fill two garbage bags in ten minutes. The CEO couldn’t even fill one. The CEO later learns his instructor is on kidney dialysis and can’t believe the man’s work ethic and ability under the circumstances. The fellow explains that he doesn’t let his body tell him what he can do, he tells his body lest he find himself unable to do anything.

That hit me really hard after all the sitting I had been doing. It encouraged me to try to do a little more each day, even if I still had to take it easy, still had to have periods where I just sit, and still couldn’t do all I wanted to do. Sometimes that means just taking short walks up and down the driveway. I started feeling a little better after that.

I met with a Physician’s Assistant this week, reviewed my shopping list of side effects. Most annoying is the numbness in my fingers and toes. Apparently, if I can button a button or put on an earring back, I’m still good to go (which I can—though handwriting is a little sketchy and I can’t manipulate some things like the lock on the side door). They claim for most people these effects dissipate after chemo is done. Personally, with only two more to go, I just want to get them done and move on to the next stage (surgery), which I will be reviewing with my surgeon soon.

Thanks again for all your comments, cards, letters, and prayers. They really mean a lot. They often come just when I need them most.