Chemo

A rock from Stone Impressions.  A business owned and operated by my daughter and Son in Law.  It says it all and, as you may remember, chemo sucks!  But here we are again. As figured, I’m going to have some more. For the curious, this time around I will be on Docetoxel. This is different than the Texas treatment which was some kind of a cocktail.  And I get four treatments at three week intervals.  The last being July 26th.  Then I have 6 weeks off and a reevaluation.  So the schedule is real good and my doctor is trying to coordinate treatments and other visits to cut down on the 80+ mile trip from Dewey.  Real nice.  And If you didn’t catch that last, we did make the move north to Prescott Valley. We are staying at Orchard Ranch RV resort in Dewey. 

Orchard Ranch                        Between here and there                 Good ‘Pie and Ice Cream’

It is a resort.  Nice place too.  All the usual stuff, pool, library, breakfasts and lunches, typical activities like cards and Bingo, pool tables, Bocce ball, shuffleboard, a putting green, and my two favorites, woodcarving and Pickleball.  It’s an outdoor court but well shaded and protected from most of the wind so it ought to play well.  Unfortunately I haven’t been able to play yet, but we’ll see.  I did go to woodcarving and it’s a good group.  We have a dedicated room for woodcarving and there were 12 folks there on my first visit.  They also meet at a church on the 2nd and 4th Saturday.  Missed the first one, but I’ll get there.  That is the Prescott Valley woodcarvers club I think.  I’ll probably join.  We have a nice site.  Not the one we thought we reserved but it is still nice.  We were a little perturbed at first and caused a little bit of a kerfuffle but its over now.  They just have a real stupid reservation policy.  But not one to cut off your nose to spite your face for.  Anyway we have good shade trees, birds to feed and I even got two container tomatoes to grow.  A Big Boy and a cherry tomato.  We’ll see!  You sure don’t dare and forget to water daily.  Oh, I forgot.  They even have a community garden here.  All raised beds.  Something I haven’t done yet but should check out.  The trip up here was kind of cool, I think?  Don’t tell Kat!  We had reservations to be here on the ‘1st and that was a week after my first chemo treatment.  And a week after chemo I am pretty much chemo brain and in a fog.  But I gotta’ tell ya’, I was not wanting to stay another day in the ‘Valley of the Sun’ at 100o’s plus.  So I faked it and we made the drive in the RV.  Poor Kat!  She worked her but off packing up down there and setting up here.  But! We made it OK.  I just don’t remember much about driving, although I did.  It was worth the move.  It is so nice up here.  Last night I sat out until almost dark carving.  Very pleasant with a cool breeze and then at night it’s about 55o or so and we can open doors and windows.  Just real nice!  I can sit out just about any time I want and carve, read, or brush the cat.   
Chemo curmudgeon!
As to the actual treatment, it went very well.  We had to watch a film about the whole thing.  With the change in drug the individual treatments are a little more involved.  I have to take a three day prescription the day prior to chemo for my immune system and another prescription after treatment and as long as needed for nausea. I also have to administer a tummy shot for six days after chemo to assist in taking care of my bones and bone marrow; we got instructions and demos on all that. Even had a private room for the first go around. So all in all this in a much more involved treatment plan and sounds so far a little more aggressive. But as I said, I like the schedule much better. As to side effects, we’ll see. I know to expect hair loss again. Sounds like that’s definite. And I got some stronger pain killer. Oxycodone, and it works real well compared to hydrocodone. No complaints yet. Heavy on the ‘yet’, I guess.