My baby takes the morning train...

Yesterday and today are my first two full days of going to work since December. I guess I should be well-rested after having 8 months to simply lay around. Somehow, I'm not!

Leave from work...

I received some not so great news today. Apparently, there is now a cap on how much leave I am allowed through the program I've been using this year. My leave runs out 16 September. So, for 3.5 months of chemo, I have to somehow be at work, if I want to get a paycheck.

Every two weeks, I will have to take 3 days off to receive my chemo and I'll only be earning 1.5 days of leave during those two weeks. During the rest of the time, I hope I feel somewhat okay.

Do they care if I spend my day in the restroom throwing up and other stuff?

I do have one thing I can do. I can apply to have specific people at work donate days off to me. I guess I will find out how many people really like me there. :'-)

Also, my doctor did say that after so-many treatments, I could take a break from chemo and then start back up. Maybe I could take December off and then when 2009 starts, I won't have a problem with the leave program.

&%$*!!!!

So, I was throwing up tonight and I think I now have another (my 4th) incisional hernia. Yep...I might have popped a stitch. I can't win...

Losing my mind -- and other things...

I left the softball field the other day without my bat. Luckily, a teammate picked it up for me. Then I lost my car/house keys for a couple of days. Yesterday, I lost my cell phone for most of the day.

I guess chemo brain is in full effect. Lovely.

Side effects so far...

I'm a little tired.
Slight nausea
It hurt this morning when I pee'd. (That's a new, fun one.)
And the damn hiccups are back!

All for now...

10 hours in the chemo bed...

Yesterday was a fun day. Since it was the first time I was getting this combo of drugs, they administered the IVs really slowly to make sure I would not have a bad reaction to any. Had to be done, but not fun.

I thought for a second that one of the drugs gave me a new side effect...hallucinations. I was watching the Olympics on my personal tv in the room and during the break, I thought I saw a guy I knew in a commercial. Suddenly, everyone in the commercial were people I knew. I soon realized they were the members of Washington Improv Theater -- an improv group I've known for years. Thanks for freaking me out, WIT people! Whew...I wasn't hallucinating.

The tv didn't stop messing me my emotions. ESPN ran a segment on John Challis who I blogged about a few months ago. He is an 18 yr old Pittsburgh kid with cancer who was put into his high school's baseball game. He got a hit and the other team stopped to applaud him. The ESPN show was detailing how positive he is. Inside his hat, he had written "Courage + Belief = Life". The segment ended by saying he passed away yesterday. That's the moment my nurse decided to check on me. I worried her as she saw me in tears...

Running program...

I came across http://www.cancerto5k.org/ It's a training program for cancer survivors who want to run a 5K race. (Which I mentioned, several blogs ago, that I do.)

The description on the website:

The CANCER to 5K Training Program ™ is a free 12-week training program designed to introduce and/or reintroduce cancer survivors to physical activity by providing them with the training program, coaches, encouragement and support necessary to complete a 5K (3.1 miles) distance road race.

Perfect!!!