All things bright and beautiful

All things bright and beautiful

Christ is Risen. And as the very wise Len F. likes to say, we know how the story ends. This is good news.

It turns out that Taxol is one potent chemo drug. One of its many potential side effects is neuropathy - a fancy word for nerve damage. It manifests itself in a few ways. For me, that meant all-over pain that was, well ... not cool. Turns out there's a drug for that - gabapentin, which works by stabilizing or dialing down nerve response.  I'm taking it in advance of tomorrow's chemo in the hopes of heading that off at the pass this time around. It makes me a bit drowsy and a bit clumsy (Some Monty Python-esque Ministry of Funny Walks worthy moments) but I've never been all that coordinated, and certainly never been one to avoid a good nap. It has a few other side effects that we won't discuss.

It's not all bad. There's no nausea for me with this one, and my head feels much clearer (Teenage Son: "How would we know?") Also, because Taxol frequently causes allergic reactions, they hang a nice big bag of benedryl when they infuse it, which makes for a couple hours of blissful drifting in la-la land.

To give you a glimpse of how well we are cared for, on Sunday Firstborn Daughter joined us for an Easter meal of leftovers from the week. The feast consisted of fresh bread from Paul and Dolores, quiche from Andrea, soup from Mrs. H, shepherd's pie from my parents, and cinnamon buns from Dawn and Tracey.  And today the easter bunny (Marianne?) left chocolate on the front porch :)

We also had the fun of joining my beloved colleagues for some bowling (no - I did not bowl - see the the note above regarding coordination; I would have needed the gutter guards) and supper. Another highlight was watching the Grand River as the spring melt plus recent rain crested in Galt at forty times normal summer flow. Wild.

We have absolutely soaked ourselves in the warm weather this weekend. We walked part of the Walter Bean Trail from Galt towards Blair, we walked part of the Cambridge to Paris rail trail from Glen Morris towards Paris, and today we biked from Galt to Glen Morris and back (a bit ambitious maybe, but worth it). I couldn't stop myself from putting my feet in the Grand at Glen Morris; it was a tad on the cool side. This weekend alone we've seen an osprey, terns, blue heron, deer, a garter snake, flickers, cardinals, chickadees, blue jays, goldfinches, a chipmunk, and plants of all kinds waking up from winter's grip. Skunk cabbages are in bloom all along the rail trail - this is truly amazing plant with some surprising skills - look it up.

Tomorrow is chemo session 6 of 8 (day got changed from Monday to Tuesday because of the Easter weekend). I also now go weekly for IV infusion of Herceptin - not a chemotherapy drug, but a targeted antibody. Google has more information if you're interested.

We continue to be so grateful for the food, and your cards, prayers, emails and texts of support. We cannot say this enough.  Thank you from all of us.

All creatures great and small