Reasons To Be Cheerful, Parts 7-10

I've been struggling to write the next journal entry during this round of chemo. I'm not exactly sure why, but I suspect that it might be because nothing out of the ordinary happened during this round. That's not to say it was easy; there was still the truly hellish week when the side-effects are at their worst, there was still the long slow climb out of that and back to something that felt more human. 

It's just that, with slight differences in severity and duration, this round was very much like the three that came before it. In fact, this round kind of felt like a textbook example of what I've now come to see as the average round of chemo for me. Every time I sat down to write a journal entry, it felt like I was going to be repeating myself. 

 

However, right around two weeks in, Day 13 to be exact, I felt well enough to spend an afternoon using some energy for something more than basic housebound functions for a change. In fact, I felt a strong need to test what's left of my stamina. The weather was great, so my wife and I made a plan to visit a number of the Rock County Parks (located in southern Wisconsin) that we had yet to visit. 

The visits would not be like they used to be, where we'd walk the trails in places like that for a couple miles. Sadly, between chemotherapy and testosterone lowering/blocking drugs, I doubt I could hike for more than 3/4 mile (total) at one time before feeling wiped out. Very different from how I felt last year at this time.

We visited three new-to-us parks up there. We briefly walked some of the trails at the first two, maybe even more than 3/4 mile in total! (I was able to rest between parks because my wife drove.) I was getting pretty tired by the time we left the second one. Luckily, the main attraction at the third park was a nice, quiet lake, so we found ourselves a bench and contemplated the universe for a while. 

It was almost indescribably nice to get back out into nature after a couple weeks of chemo hell spent mostly on the couch.

 

Later that week, our daughter visited us. Not only did she help us out with some larger-scale cleaning jobs around the house, but we had a lot of fun too! She's my bonfire buddy, so we did some creative campfire cooking one evening. A couple days later, the three of us visited one of our favorite Forest Preserves in this area, partially as an excuse for my daughter and I to do some creek walking. Such wonderful, memory-making times! 

I've said before that I wouldn't wish chemotherapy on anyone, and that's still true. Describing it as "hellish" is not just hyperbole. I just find that what inspired me to finally write another entry after 20 days are the good times I've managed to have with my family when I'm not at my worst. Gotta keep the positive in mind, especially when it's harder to see in the grand scheme of things.

 

For reference:  Reasons To Be Cheerful, Parts 1-6