One down – 15 to go…

Today marks the end of my first week after chemo.  The nurse told me I could expect a couple of good days followed by a few bad days that would slowly ramp back up to good days again…just in time for my next treatment and to start the process all over again.

My wonderful wife suggested we do something fun/different/exciting – one thing, each week during my chemo.  I get Chemo once every 3 weeks for a course of six treatments so we came up with a list of 16 things – one for each week.

On our list:  Take a walk around Nahant Marsh or Sunderbruch Park.
So, this morning Susan and I took a beautiful walk along Sunderbruch Park trails.  We saw horses, butterflies, and the rolling beauty of the farmlands surrounding the Quad Cities.

The trailhead was marked by these cool sunflower sculprtures!
(and yes...I still have my hair ;p )

To recap: Last Monday they pushed ‘Taxol’ and ‘Carbo’ into me over a 5 hour period and I went home feeling more or less “normal”.  And, as predicted, the first 2 days I felt…okay.  I haven’t been sleeping well and I have, what Susan says is “chemo-brain”, but otherwise I felt like, “Hey, chemo, no big deal!”  Then something changed Wednesday night.

I don’t remember how it started but at some point that evening what I can only describe as a bone-crushing ache set upon every bone in my body.  I couldn’t sit, stand, breathe or sleep comfortably.  I was in head-to-toe pain – not debilitating, not unbearable, just…complete.  There were no pain meds prescribed and I’m only allowed Tylenol – which worked about as well as a sugar pill.  Yes, I’m complaining. I’m whining.  I’m going to take this one moment and ask you to be tolerant while I say, “poor me”.    Okay, thanks for listening, done now.

Thursday we’d had plans to go to a concert and I insisted we go on with our plans - I could be miserable at home or I could be miserable at a concert so off we went to one of our favorite venues, CodFish Hollow, to see one of our new favorite bands, The Lone Bellow.  I spent the evening supplanting the pain by surrounding myself with friends and music - joyous, thunderous music with 3-part harmonies that seemed to cushion my bones against the pain.  It wasn’t absolute but the ache was made more bearable for those few hours.

I’m not really sure what I would have done had that “ache” continued past Friday.  Luckily, I didn’t need to find out. On Saturday I woke with most of the pain having left my bones and only a shallow uneasiness just beneath the skin that keeps me from feeling 100 percent.  I’ll take that.

As the new week begins I’m excited to start teaching a songwriting class for students from the Creative Arts Academy.  I continue teaching private lessons on guitar and mandolin and will wrap up my week with a set at the Bix7 Street Fest on Friday and a show at a local distillery on Saturday. 

My family, my friends and music keeps me going.