A Day at the Beach (without the beach)

 

After tomorrow, I will have completed three of the ten weeks of the Arsenic Trioxide (not including the two week break in the middle). I've been asked how the daily IV infusion makes me feel, and I've finally found the right metaphor to describe it:

When I leave the oncologist's office each afternoon, I feel like I've spent the day at the beach. It's that sunburned, dehydrated, woozy, exhausted feeling that's normally cured with a pina colada and a lounge chair positioned to face the sunset. Except I don't actually have the sunburn, and I didn't actually play in the surf and sand.

I haven't tried the pina colada and lounge chair remedy yet. Maybe I should, though I am not complaining about this day-at-the-beach side effect. It is nothing compared to what chemo can do. I'm making the most of my Summer at the Beach (without the beach) before the season ends and I begin two more rounds of stronger chemo (Daunarubicin).

In my first post, I'd hoped to be walking on a white sandy beach by August. That won't be happening. But it will eventually, and I'll relish that exhausted feeling at the end of the day.