So, yesterday we went to the hospital for my usual Thursday injection of bortezomib and to get the rest of the meds I take orally. This time it was a bit different because I am now on a full dose of cyclophosphomide. I was a bit trepidatious about it. I wondered if the symptoms going from a half dose to a full dose might produce twice the level of distress from the symptoms. Would I have more nausea? Doesn’t seem like it at the moment. Would I have more brain effects like lightheadedness and dizziness? Doesn’t seem like it for now. At this point it seems like it’s business as usual. I may lose my hair with the added dose of cycloformaldehyde (my name for cyclophosphomide) but that’s no big deal, I could also see darkening of skin colour and nails hardening, etcetera. Those effects are yet to be seen. Another side effect of my chemo meds is infertility. Gee, that’s really got me worried.

My tummy seems nicely settled at the moment. That’s good. Hydromorphone (hydro for short) tends to make one constipated. It sure as hell did that to me. However, most of the chemo meds I’m taking tend to produce diarrhea. Do they balance each other out? Not necessarily. Pooing regularly is very important to me now and I sure don’t need to rip my anus apart with constipation. Bring on the Dulcolax. One in the morning and one at night seem to do the trick, but I have to be on top of it because things change so quickly with chemotherapy. At the moment all is okay on the anal front. Oh, and my butt gives profuse thanks to our bidet toilet seat. That was one very wise purchase!

Last night I took my usual dose of hydro (which I found out doing research a couple of days ago that it’s one of the drugs some states in the US use for lethal injections in capital punishment). Because I have my bortezomid injection earlier in the day and I’m prone to swelling and issues around the injection site, I was told to take Benadryl as a means of counteracting that. So, I took a couple of Benadryl and that helped me sleep for four hours or so, but the dexamethasone (dex) kept pushing back wanting to make me more hyper. I slept, like I said for four hours, but after that the dex won and I lay awake for most of the rest of the night. However, thankfully, the Benadryl did counteract the dex so that I wasn’t as hyper as I might get otherwise. I was quite relaxed, actually. Around four AM I took another one milligram of hydro because my hip was hurting me more than I am prepared to tolerate. That seemed to do it, the pain attenuated and I was more comfortable. Taking one milligram of hydro on another day under different conditions and it would have no effect. It’s all about timing and balance.

As I lay in bed last night unable to initially fall asleep I checked out the ceiling above our bed. A few weeks ago I noticed signs of wetness in the ceiling drywall. It’s pretty easy to tell if your roof is leaking and you have drywalled ceilings. The paint begins to ripple and buckle slightly as the water soaks through the drywall. I am prepared to put up with some of that, but we need to ensure that it isn’t getting much worse. We painted that ceiling not long ago so I had a baseline to work with. I don’t think it is getting worse, but the solution is to get up on the roof and tighten all the screws holding down the metal roof. Metal roof screws can loosen off over time and cause problems ten or fifteen years after installation so it’s a good idea to tighten them down periodically. We’ve done that, thanks to Tim (our son-in-law) on the studio roof, and the shop roof is only a couple of years old so no need to do anything with that roof. Now, it seems, we have to do the house. I’m not about to go up there, neither is Carolyn. We’ll have to hire somebody to do that, somebody steady on their feet and with good, non-arthritic hands.

Then I thought about the studio. It’s a bit of a mess at first glance, but I set it up to do some printing months ago and it does look like a mess. But it’s not really. Someone else looking at it or going in there sees mess (unless they’re an artist). It does need some tidying up, but I’m the only one who can do that, except for moving some of the heavier pieces of equipment and my sister-in-laws stuff. A number of people have shoved ‘stuff’ into the studio to get it out of the house and out of the way, but in doing so have damaged one of the paintings I was working on, punching a hole in the middle of it. It was bound to happen. Now I have to decide if it’s worth repairing that painting or not. Sooner or later I’m going to have to go into the studio and assess my capacity to work. I could maybe do a small woodcut or linocut or finish a painting or two. I’ve got lots I could do, but do I have the energy, and can I overcome the shakes that are a side effect of some of my chemo meds? And what about that arthritis? Those are the questions.

At one point last night, about twenty minutes after taking the extra one milligram of hydro, I lay on my back and realized, heh, I don’t have pain anywhere in my body! Holy shit. I can guarantee you that that is a rare occurrence. How did it happen? Well, as best as I can figure, I had all my various meds balanced out. The slow-release hydro was looking after my regular pain, the Benadryl was counteracting the dex as well as looking after the injection site issues. As long as I stayed still, I was painless! Of course, a few minutes later, when I decided to move to sleeping on my right side, I started getting pain in my thoracic area, something I’m quite familiar with. But heh! Lesson about balance taken!

Balance seems to be everything in my life at the moment. It sure wasn’t always a concern for me to the extent that it is now. Now, I could think about going into my studio and working, say, for an hour instead of for a whole day. I can think about going for short walks instead of running marathons thus balancing my need to rest with my need for exercise. I need to take time to think about how my meds work and how to get the most out of them without too much stress on my body and emotions. Age is a huge issues but instead of pining for the good ol’ days, finding age and cancer appropriate balance is working for me. Of course, I’m still going to die, but that will help out with the cosmic balance between life and death. More on this to come.