March 21, 2007
After three days of the seven in this round of Chemotherapy, the treatment has taken my body of last week and replaced it with an old, tired, aching model complete with sore mouth, stomach cramps and nausea. As I have mentioned, each round affects me differently, and this one is fierce. Because of bleeding at the injection sites, I have already moved from the arms to the abdomen. I am always studying the information available about MDS, and wondering how I can avoid all of the above; the oncologist patiently explained once again that the treatment deals only with the condition since its cause is still a complete mystery. He said that in his entire time of practice, this is the first therapy (other than the stem cell transplant which is not an option for me) that has stopped the progression of the disease for any length of time. Then I inquired if perhaps the Vidaza had moved me from the initial diagnosis of MDS, RAEB-T (the most severe classification of the five levels of the illness) to level four perhaps, since the cells no longer appear to be in transition. He determined that I should gather my questions and see the doctor at the Med Center in Omaha and visit about the future and the options there. He said that while he studied all of the forms of cancer that he dealt with in his practice, he was seeing patients throughout the spectrum and at the Med Center I would be visiting with someone whose focus was just MDS.
Meanwhile, spring arrived at around 8:00 PM last night, and sure enough, a south wind came up after midnight and we awakened to 56 degree temperatures before sunrise. The entire day before had been cold and gray so at this hour, we are about thirty degrees warmer than yesterday at the same time. The plants in the ground must surely be confused. “Up!” “No, wait, too cold.” “Hurry, it’s summer. . . and so forth” The frogs are singing in the wetland bog down by the big cottonwood tree and the robins have started their morning chorus in earnest, so winter is certainly over; now we will see if hot dry days will come too soon. I can easily imagine the ticks and mosquitoes and gnats stirring from within their secret winter hideouts and preparing for a long and lovely feast of summer. The little wood violets should be appearing any day and daffodils and crocus will be showing up as well. This time of awakening is always such a joy to behold – it almost compensates for living in a place sans the extravagant beauty of oceans, mountains, palm and hibiscus trees and other lovely things in far away places.
(Next entry: March 26)