Another Report

Thursday, October 10, 2013

It is now very early morning on Thursday, as referenced above; two days after a visit with the doctor and one day after carboplatin cycle 10-1.  One of those times when my old habits kick in.  Or one of my new habits asserts itself.

 The visit to the doctor on Tuesday followed a meeting with the North America Southeast Planning Committee with all four of the General Authorities with responsibility for that area of the Church.  I had taken some Advil earlier in the day to be sure that I could get through the meeting without pain from the sciatica and the other aches that have been bothering me for the last week or so.  The work with the committee is getting a little more intense; we have a Mission Presidents Seminar in three weeks.  Preparing for that has occupied quite a bit of my time.

As we drove to the Huntsman Cancer Center, the Advil started to wear off.  This was good, so that I could explain in vivid detail what was bothering me.  I wanted an opinion on whether I should be worried about something other than just sciatica and stiffness from trying to do too many push-ups.  The pain is not in the lymph nodes, so that does not seem to be a problem, and they could not tie the pain spots to anything at all related to anything they have studied in their pursuit of oncology.  So that was good assurance.  But in addition, if this does not go away soon (indicative of muscle strain), they want to know about it so that the next scan (scheduled for November 4th) can look for a source of the pain.  The blood tests look good, and it appears from all that the medical staff and we can tell, the tumors are still stable.  I have more energy than last report, at least when the pain is not interfering with life.  I know that if I take the Advil and/or Tylenol more often I will have less pain, but I hate taking pills.

Please understand that I am not complaining, just reporting the situation.  I think the folks that insisted that I do this blog would expect nothing less.  What I do complain about is having to sit here trying to tell you what is going on.  :-)   Even so, I am grateful to be here doing this, even though documentation has never been something that I like to do.  Things could be a whole lot worse.  Still, I would rather be doing stuff than writing about it.

A quick word about Wednesday and the one of the new habits starting to assert itself:  the infusion went well and as usual, no noticeable side effects during the infusion process.  However, I have noticed that on infusion days, I do not get sleepy until much later than normal. and I am awake earlier.  But only on infusion days.  Curious.

I am happy and very grateful to still be around and able to take on nourishment.  I appreciate the prayers in my behalf.  The Lord is blessing me far beyond anything one could or should expect - evidence of His great love for all of His children.

MJG