Day 9- Day 14: Returning To Life, One Step At A Time

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted much, there just hasn't been much to update anyone on. I've been feeling back to 100% since Day 11!

I guess let's do some notable highlights, though.

Day 9: I got off Zofran, but stayed on Reglan 2-3 times a day. Nausea 4.5 Fatigue 2.5 Oh, and I received bleo today, no side effects whatsoever other than the fact that the veins in my arms are tired of being stuck, seriously. As was prescribed to me when taking bleo, I pre-medicated with Tylenol, and followed up with 1 dose every 6 hours for 24 hours after.

Day 10: Felt that last bit of my energy come back and I just kept on enjoying my summer vacation. Nausea still not great. Nausea 4 Fatigue 1

Day 11: I actually went to California Great America with a few good friends.

I rode (the most modest) thrill rides too without getting nauseous! Major personal win. Nausea 2.5 Fatigue 1. Did this all day and then went to the Harry Potter 7 Pt. 2 premiere later that night.

Day 12: Nausea 2.5, Hung out with my friends by a pool.

Day 13: Road trip down to Santa Cruz for a day with some friends. Something interesting actually did happen here. I was enjoying my day with my friends and we were hanging out at the beach, which for those of you not near Santa Cruz, California, is awesome and also located right next to a boardwalk amusement park.

I was walking on the beach barefoot as we were searching for a volleyball court when all of a sudden I felt a prick on the bottom of my foot. A piece of wood in the sand had its jagged edge pointing up and had made a 1 cm cut across the bottom of my foot! I was barefoot in the sand so my knee-jerk reaction was to move put my foot down in a different part of the sand. So now I'm a chemo patient with a weakened immune system with a cut on the bottom of my foot that is filled with sand that's been who knows where. My mind immediately created a list of things I had to do in the next 30 minutes to reduce the possibility of infection:

1. Keep calm, flipping out over a cut will never do anything, I reminded myself that my platelet and WBC counts came back really nice this week, so the bleeding would soon stop and that my body could most likely handle an infection IF it came.

2. Wash the cut. Priority number 1 was to do as much as I could as quickly as I could. So I hopped into a restroom on one foot (still barefoot) and washed it off with water as well as made a makeshift pressure bandage with a fresh roll of toilet paper, so that when I put a sock over my foot, The sock wasn't actually touching my foot and and bleeding (if it occurred) would get caught on the tp.

3. Get a clean sock over that foot. Had a friend of mine bring me my socks from where we were on the beach.

4. Get to the boardwalk's first aid office, run an alcohol swab over the cut, and bandage it. Check, check, and check.

I also took 2 extra alcohol swab packets and 2 bandaids with me and as the day progressed I checked on the cut two more times to make sure I had gotten all the splinters/sand out, and that it wasn't getting inflamed. I re-bandaged the cut each time after an alcohol swab.

My approach here: During chemo, don't underestimate anything, treat every situation carefully; it's the little things that get you.

Oh, one other little thing: On the way back to Santa Cruz we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, luckily I've been keeping a Reglan on my person at all times in a plastic bag to stay ahead of potential nausea. I had to have it before we even sat down at the table but by doing so, I avoided a potentially bad situation.

Day 14: Pretty uneventful day again. I laid on the couch all day reading Ender's Shadow, one of my favorite books, for the 10th time and it never ceases to interest me. The reason for laying in bed was to give my cut as much time & room to heal as possible. Also changed the bandage on it to a more pad-like bandage with more coverage on it because I knew I'd be walking around later that night (with socks on) at my friend's going away party. I am back to 100%. The rest of this cycle should by all means be a breeze unless complications from my cut or some new injury/illness arise.