'On the mend'

I was hoping that I wouldn't have to be 'on the mend' until after my 3rd infusion, but unfortunately this week did not go quite as planned. I was recovering from my second infusion as planned until Monday night. A few hours after dinner (Note: a dinner full of steamed veggies that was SUPPOSED to make me strong and healthy) my stomach started to hurt. As I was trying to fall asleep my stomach started to hurt so bad that I actually took one of my anti-nausea pills. Now, over the past six weeks I have NEVER needed an anti-nausea pill except for the mandatory days post infusion so I really wasn't feeling well. I had a terrible time falling asleep and by morning I was achy all over. I felt like I was back to day 2 post-infusion with an upset stomach as a bonus. Needless to say, I never made it into work that day and the highlight of my day ended up being a warm bath. The good news was that I had no fever. In fact, I was questioning the accuracy of my thermometer because my temperature was well below normal. Regardless, this was a relief. Anyone who has undergone chemotherapy has had it pounded into their head that a temperature above 100.5 is considered a medical emergency. Since my temperature was in the 96-97 range, I was not too worried.

Tuesday night my stomach was relieved. I'll spare the details, but it was not pretty. Not as bad as my epic food poisoning incident post Whisky 50 last year, but I did need to stay within 20 feet of a toilet for a couple of hours.

By Wednesday morning I was starting to feel better and ventured into work for a caseload meeting. Once at work I found out that quite a few of my co-workers were out with the flu, so now I'm not sure if it was food poisoning or the flu. I suppose it could be either as chemotherapy messes with your gut AND makes you more susceptible to viruses. Fortunately, I am certain that I am recovering and should be able to proceed with infusion #3 tomorrow.

Overall, I am happy that my body was able to recover relatively quickly from this little set-back and that I was well enough today to sneak a ride in on dirt.

There are a lot of epic cycling events taking place this weekend. My teammate Karen Potter is racing the Tran-Sylvania Epic Stage Race, a 7-day stage race in Pennsylvania. She finished second last year! Gunnison Growler is also this weekend. Shannon and I ventured to Gunnison to compete in this race last year. Locally, there is the Stan Crane Memorial race. This is one of my favorite local races on the super fun Corner Canyon trails. I will not be competing in any of these races, but I will be participating in my own personal marathon tomorrow. It all starts when I meet with the plastic surgeon at 11:15. I still have one final surgery that we will be discussing. Then I proceed to have my blood drawn and IV placed prior to my 1:15 appointment with my medical oncologist. My infusion is scheduled to begin at 2:30 and usually lasts a couple of hours, however I have never started on time so I plan on being at Huntsman through dinner. As has become my routine, I will get a little bit of dirt therapy in the morning.

After that I will be back to week one post infusion. The good news is that I will be 75% done!