Camp Chemo

Holly and I were joking last night about the next round of chemo since I am back in the hospital today for 5 days. She had the idea to call it Camp Chemo. Seems to fit actually. It is a place I go away to, and the time does pass in one big time warp. Just makes you think of fun, doesn't it? Wish I got a T-shirt or archery badge out of it at least.

The team just rounded on me, and now they will go behind the scenes to put in my orders for the exact amount of chemo drug I am to receive (it is based on wt and ht). And they will order labs to see what my baseline blood cell counts are. The drug works pretty quickly to lower all of the important counts-my platelets, my red blood cells, and my infection fighting white blood cells. But last time, it took a week for the counts to drop enough to require transfusions of blood and/or platelets. Then the counts started back up within that same week. It was so good to have only a brief need for blood and platelet transfusions. I expect this cycle to be the same.

We had a nice, busy w-e in Asheville. We did some work around the house and yard, got to Bent Creek for a mtn bike ride, ran around Beaver Lake, ate out at my favorite Indian place, and hiked a gorgeous loop off the Parkway (Sam's knob). I wanted to connect with my friends Shannon and Billie, but we ran out of time. It seems we always have more we want to do and more people we want to see than time allows. Oh well, I expect we'll be back there in a few weeks to pick up where we left off.

I am back in my old hospital room, #9202, with the good westerly view. No pneumonia this time, whew! I'll just be hanging out, waiting for my first dose of chemo and reading all the books and NY Times papers I brought with me. That is my Monday back to work routine for today. Hope yours goes well too.