Second Chemotherapy Infusion - NEW GUITAR!?

September 16 (Day before)

I had a good week. By the 9th, I finally started to feel human again. I even went climbing with Jackson and managed to get to the chains on one of the longer 5.10s at the Power Plant. The walls there are about 50 feet, and it’s a great spot for lead climbing. My neck was still a little swollen, so looking left was tough. I bailed on one of the routes that had a leftward move on the ceiling/overhang.

The rest of the week I kept things chill. I spent some time reworking logic in an iOS and Android widget to support an exciting new product at work and picked up a few other tickets.

My brother and his wife came into town on the 12th, and we had an amazing time. We took my son to the zoo. The spider monkeys were a big hit, and he loved watching the seals eat. We grabbed BBQ at Pappy’s, shopped for baby stuff at IKEA (they’ve got one on the way), and set up the splash pad at home since it got hot again. I also traded in one of my guitars for a pretty cool 1980s Gretsch. It should arrive this weekend. Buying guitars online is risky, but I have a good feeling.

On top of all that, we ate frozen custard and ice cream at least three times this week. Nothing beats Ted Drewes. Honestly, I’ve been doing a good job of distracting myself from the thought of Round 2 tomorrow. My main hope is that everything goes as smoothly as last time, with a little more medicine to deal with the side effects. I’ve been eating a lot while my mouth is healed up, kind of stockpiling calories in anticipation of not being able to eat much in the coming days.

September 17–18

This round has been better than the first.

My cardiac labs came back fine, so I don’t need any extra meds. The chest tumor had likely thrown off the ultrasound readings of my left ventricle, but thankfully, everything looks good now.

Treatment itself went smoothly. My oncologist prescribed me a whole set of meds to help with side effects, though so far I’ve only needed the nausea pills. Hopefully that means I’ll avoid the muscle spasms and blurred vision this time. Those might actually have been from tapering off the steroids last round. Either way, I’m more prepared now. I’ve got anti-migraine meds, and the green light to take more Advil and Tylenol if needed. They’re also less concerned about fevers this time around, which is reassuring. Neck swelling from the surgery is down, but I am still on steroids. Hopefully that doesn't return.

The worst part yesterday was when they missed my vein on the first attempt hooking me up. Ouch. Right now, my main symptom is just feeling wiped out.

Even so, I managed to write and deploy some code today and fix an iOS Safari bug on one of our sites. Mostly though, I’ve been sleeping, reading, scrolling the internet, and drinking a lot of Gatorade and Fairlife protein shakes.