Making the Most of the Moment

I currently write in the midst of a good period, but sandwiched in between a bumpy end to cycle 14 and the start of cycle 15. I have a lot of energy right now. When I had my blood counts checked on Monday, my hemoglobin and red blood cell counts were higher than they've been in a long time. The former was in fact in the normal range (a rare occurrence), and the latter was just below normal.

I wish I could say that cycle 14 ended smoothly, but the day after I'd made my last post, my intestines acted up again. Was it the C diff, the irinotecan, or both? I'll never know for sure, but I have a feeling that the irinotecan played a big role, as this was my first time having to forgo the anti-diarrhea measures I usually take, with a noticeable difference in results compared to the cycle 13, which also featured a C diff return. It started with frequent trips to the bathroom on Friday morning. When I went in to get the cycle's last day of chemo, and brought this up, my chemo dose was canceled so as not to risk making things worse. And briefly, things got better. But then the next day, I got worse again, to the point where I was advised to go into urgent care that night. A check of my electrolyte levels thankfully revealed that I had not gotten to the point of being very dehydrated; I received a liter of fluid by IV to keep things that way and then was released. Sunday was another tough day, but by the evening things started to let up a bit. Gradual improvement continued the next two days. By Wednesday, it was all systems go, with me no longer worrying that bad things would happen during the afternoon's physical therapy session. So I expect no delays when it comes to starting cycle 15.

Speaking of that cycle, I know it's going to be a hard one. I've talked at length about the multitude of side effects the cyclophosphamide/doxorubicin/vincristine combo has given me back in the days of cycle 3, most notably nausea, mouth sores, and destroyed taste buds, and I'm expecting them to all come back. Given that, I've told myself that I need to make the most of these next few days before I start, while I still have energy... And my taste buds! Thinking back to how my taste for food got thrown for a loop by my first three cycles, I've made my number one task enjoying some of my favorite foods before my taste for them gets thrown off. One such item is cinnamon rolls; my first three cycles made cinnamon, whose flavor I normally very much like, taste unpalatably bitter. Thankfully, that taste change was not permanent, but it was no fun while it lasted. Another is cotlet. Cotlets are breaded and fried meat and potato patties that in Persian cuisine are commonly put in pita or some other flatbread and enjoyed as a sandwich. I was not very much into them until I invented a version in summer 2012 whose taste I really enjoy. Though protein-heavy foods are something that chemo does not make me lose my taste for, the thing with cotlet is that the presence of bread and potatoes complicates things. My first three cycles wiped out my taste for bread almost entirely, and potatoes I usually wanted only in mashed form. With that in mind, I made a batch of cotlets last night:

Along with a bowl of mast-o-khiar (another Persian dish, this one yogurt with cucumbers, raisins, walnuts, and a mix of herbs), this was my dinner, and it was very tasty. Over the next few days, I'll be eating, working on my thesis, and getting around New York some. I look forward to having cycle 15 behind me, after which the sailing will be a lot smoother.