Round 3

Please do notice the time of this post.  But to truly set the picture, we should discuss the prior week and the 'restful' weekend we had.  Last week was just plain busy.  It was my week off the drugs so my systems were starting to get back to normal but of course, the weekend took its toll!  My son had his purple-belt test in TaeKwonDo on Friday so I left work early to see that.  Afterwards we took him out to dinner and then headed home at a reasonable time.  But of course, by bath, etc., my little one wasn't down till 830 and the older one stayed up to watch an episode of Ben10 and some other Anime style teen show (at the ripe age of 6).  My wife went out with the girls and I went to bed early.  But my youngest decided her big-girl bed just wouldn't work for her and she needed our bed.  Hats off to my wife who, having come in a bit late, actually just got up, and slept with her in her bed.  I was allowed to sleep in on Sat but I still felt like I'd been hit by a truck.  We had a full day on Sat (soccer, swimming, etc.) and the wife and I decided to stay home and watch a movie.  Needless to say, she fell asleep about an hour into the movie, tried to get a second wind, and it just didn't work.  Sunday was a full day of church, burning some energy off the kids at the playground afterwards and then prepping for an hour drive out to Long Island for a nieces' first communion party.  We got home around 7ish, had dinner and then washed the kids and put them to bed.  Again, the little one not till 830 and the elder shortly thereafter.  But it was hot - damned hot!  We put on the aircon in their room and ours but refused, on 2 May, to put it on elsewhere.  The youngest got up around 4 to go to the potty (again, hats off to the wife) and the eldest got up around 5 to say it was too hot in his room (w/ the aircon) and he wanted to sleep on the couch.  He was put back to bed (again, hats of to the spouse) and back to sleep (or so we thought).  Needless to say, it was so hot, we just tossed and turned the entire night.  And this, was our restful weekend.  NB - when I got out of the shower around 630 that morning, my son was sitting on the built-in looking out the window and playing w/ his legos.  He said he'd come out to watch the thunderstorm and had been up since 6:05 (he's telling time now!)


So today is Monday, my first day of round 3.  As noted previously, I've backed down my steroids to only 8mg.  When I started this mess I was on 40mg, now I'm only 8mg (I should be able to handle this, big strapping lad that I am, righ?)  Well, now it's Monday at 23:46 and I've been trying to setup my blog to be able to print to a PDF file that I can print and send to my MIL who doesn't own a computer.  It was midway through downloading the equivalent of 127 pages (boy I talk a lot) that I had these musings and decided to post.  8mg and I'm wide awake, wired for sound, completely refreshed and DREADING GETTING UP TOMORROW!


But enough of that...some key points to note on this cycle.
1) going into this cycle I was prepared.  Having come out of a weekend wherein I truly believe I lost 5 pounds just in the bathroom, I was prepared to go after this cycle full speed.  I took my Metamucil in the morning, had a spinach salad for lunch (w/ beets, asparagus, peas, etc.), and my wife cooked a healthy meal of porkshops w/ fig/rains sauce, broccoli and rice pilaf.  I'm feeling like a champ
2) the Doc offered me a scrip of Senna and I think the quote takes it, "Sennas act as purgatives and are similar to aloe and rhubarb in having as active ingredients anthraquinone derivatives and theirglucosides. The latter are called sennosides or senna glycosides. Senna alexandrina is used in modern medicine as a laxative;^[10] acting on the lower bowel, it is especially useful in alleviating constipation. It increases the peristaltic movements of thecolon by irritating the colonic mucosa."  Irritating the colonic mucosa - it doesn't get much better than that.  He also offered me a scrip of Colace commonly known as a stool softener.  The pharmacist at CVS was kind enough to point out to me that the box of Senna that I picked up already had Colace and I only needed that one box to get everything I needed from the Docs scrip (please note - these are over the counter drugs, located next to the Gas-X, and all those other, aptly named, embarrasing to purchase bowel related medications.)  But the better part of this is - if I hadn't asked her and bought both, I would have been taking double the amount of stool softener.  That could have been disastrous!
3) As today is my first dosage of Rev/Dex, I've been paying attention to see what, if anything, may happen (due to the decrease in Dex.)  I have noticed, upon eating my fruit this morning and having an orange later this evening, that I am having a Niacin like reaction - a quick flush and tingling to the skin, specifically to the head (for me.)  Not sure if that's related but will keep on watching.
4) hair is coming back.  I bought another trimmer and tried to just trim my hair (having the setting on 1) and took off more than I expected.  But I have a nice dose of peach fuzz and will continue to let it grow somewhat.  It's really quite nice as I have been able to buy a couple of small Trilby's (had to look that up, under Fedora) at street fairs here in the city and everyone seems to comment (or is just being nice as they know I have cancer!)  Whatever the case may be, I like the hats (as do the kids.)  So perhaps I'll stay short and sport the hat or perhaps I'll grow long and still sport the hat.  One way or the other, after being bald it doesn't really matter!


Enough for now.  I need to depart for sleep (or the 30 min of reading prior to falling asleep!)  Time for a warm glass of milk and to turn the aircon on in our bedroom!  I hope everyone had a restful night!