March 26, 2007
Alphie stands and waits for me at the edge of the forest as I come puffing up the hill so I tell him that the round of Chemotherapy just about did me in this time, and I am walking as fast as I can. He looks pretty noncommittal at that information, but the books say that he understands at some level. We make it around Sanctuary on this very warm spring day and he concludes his walk by leaping happily into the water in the stream nearest our house. It is not clear and lovely as one might hope, but rather, it carries in it all manner of agricultural debris from the fields to the east, so when he comes out he bears a scent which can be most kindly described as “earthy”. I suspect that he would describe it as “lovely”. All this takes place to a cacophony of bird song coming from every corner of the property and of course, the frogs’ chorus goes on.
I have been reading information again about MDS because I can’t understand why the side effects of the seven days of injections of Vidaza vary so greatly from one time to the next. This session was nasty – was it the temperature? The winds from the south? The time of the moon? The blood readings were very nearly identical to those of the last time, and I felt well going in. So far, I haven’t found any words addressing this, but rather have seen lists of side effects that let me know that I haven’t experienced nearly everything possible. (The list from Mayo Clinic runs an entire page – alas.) I have an appointment at the Medical Center next week to ask about this and more. Even though we have great gratitude for the days already lived, there is still a need to seek out information about the future.
(Next entry: March 31)