Sid Bacon

This has been a great day!  Truly a great day!
 

I felt a little queasy at the beginning of the day, but had some breakfast at home and then Laura got me plenty of crackers and ice chips to munch on at Piper while we waited for the results from my blood draw.  I was already feeling pretty good by that time, but started feeling even better soon thereafter.  The results from the blood draw were good: All signs were “go”, which means I’m handling the chemo well and that I could go ahead and have the full dose today (as desired). 
 

Cathy went to a nearby Chompies to pick up breakfast/lunch items for herself, Laura, Su (my sister), and me (I had an Everything bagel with at least some of the one pound of cream cheese that they had put on it).  The fact that I wanted a bagel to munch on before lunch was impressive, if not surprising.  A bit later, I had a much bigger (free) lunch than in past weeks.  I added a cookie and a BLT to my usual order of soup, crackers, and fruit. These lunches come from the hospital cafeteria (Scottsdale Health Care) … much better hospital food than I would expect.
 

We met with the dietician today as well.  She was very nice and provided extremely useful information … good tips on how to add calories without adding lots of additional food – I can only eat so much, particularly with the stent in place. We feel encouraged that I will now be able to gain some weight.  My goal is to gain ~2 pounds/week so that I can re-gain most of the 20 pounds I’ve lost by the time Dan gets married.   Not only do I want my suit to fit, but I want the strength and stamina to enjoy the entire ceremony and party afterwards (lots of dancing to do!). We’ll meet briefly with the dietician again next Thursday, just to touch base.  We’ll be at Piper only for blood draw, to make sure everything is still going well.   It will be nice to have a week off from chemo (even if that is about the time they predict that I’ll start losing my hair).
 

Thanks for helping me fight!

As some of you know, I was trained as a psychophysicist … I study the (lawful) relation between physical stimuli and the perception of those stimuli, in hopes of gaining a better understanding of how a particular sensory system works.  My focus has been on the auditory system, so I’ve studied the relationship between acoustic stimuli and the perception of those stimuli.   It has been a very rewarding research career.  My casual interest, however, is shifting to gustatory psychophysics (where the interest is taste). 
 

As I was lying in bed the other morning around 5:30 (after a great night’s sleep), I started thinking about my taste experiences over the past few days, and how they’ve been all over the map.  One moment I desire salty, the next bland, and then it is on to sweet (despite my earlier entries about battling Cathy and Laura for sweets, I’ve never been much of a sweet eater, and thus there never has been much competition – involving me anyway – in our house for the last piece of cake!). 
 

The other night after dinner we had a plethora of chocolates and chocolate bars lined up in the kitchen for sampling.   Knowing that I need the calories (and maybe even desire the taste), I sampled a few.  What surprised me the most was that the one chocolate bar I used to enjoy before my diagnosis just didn’t appeal to me.  It is a really dark chocolate without sugar … so I guess it is the sweetness that is appealing to me now.  I’m not giving up on that chocolate bar, however, at least not yet!
 

The dietician does not want me to get all my calories through sweets (geez) – something about protein?! But some sweets here and there throughout the day are OK.  I’ll keep sampling those chocolates and other goodies, and may even design a gustatory psychophysics experiment or two (single-subject design, of course …).
 

I believe Dan mentioned in a much earlier journal entry that a fast-food hamburger that I saw advertised on TV sounded good to me while I was in the hospital.  The other night I saw an ad for Kentucky Fried Chicken.  That looked good, too!  The dietician gave me the thumbs up for these foods, so Cathy picked up KFC last night and I had my first piece of that fast-food chicken in about 35 years!  It tasted good, as did the mashed potatoes, biscuits, and high-calorie gravy.  Who knows what is in store for tonight, but I am thinking about producing and starring in a new Reality TV show called the Biggest Winner! 

True to form … Thursday was such a great day after round 3 of chemo that I just didn’t get a good night’s sleep Thursday night (I have some meds that I will now use to deal with that).  It was a restful night, but I spent a good deal of the night reflecting on how great it is to feel good and how much fun I am going to have the following day.  Well, if you call napping fun (and who doesn’t?), then it was definitely a fun day.  I felt a little bad about abandoning my sister, but she and Cathy had a great morning shopping.  Cathy got a dress for Dan’s wedding (a big relief for her, as this isn’t her favorite kind of shopping, if she even has a favorite kind) and Su got several outfits, including two that she will probably bring back for the wedding to decide then which one she’ll wear for the big event.  I napped again in the afternoon after we enjoyed a lunch together, but that gave Su and Cathy an opportunity to do some things they needed to get done.  So, I guess their lives do not revolve around mine …
 

Before a late dinner, I took Su to the Verizon store to get a new cell phone (don’t know why she wanted to upgrade from one whose battery life was about 15 minutes).  This was the first time I had driven in about a month; we survived! 
 

Although I felt somewhat nauseas yesterday, the napping helped keep that at bay.   I ate well, although I may not have gotten the full complement of calories (hard to do that while napping!). 
 

Our nephew, Andy, flew in from Denver last night.  He and Su overlapped about 8 hours, as she flew back home this morning.  We were sorry to see her go, but it is great to have Andy here.  Among many other things, he brought some oat bars (3 different flavors) that have 360 calories per bar, 7 grams of protein, and are really tasty.  Just what the dietician and patient ordered!!
 

We went on a 30-min walk in the desert around noon today.  It was absolutely beautiful.  I just hope I didn’t burn off all 360 calories …
 

I’m not sure what we are going to have for dinner tonight.  I’ll have to watch some more TV commercials to see what looks good ( :) ) … probably something fast.

That song has been stuck in my head recently …
 

Even though yesterday was a great day, I slept well last night.  Hooray! Breaking the cycle … thank you, meds! Thanks to the good night’s sleep, today has been a really good day as well.  I took a short nap this morning, but have been eating well and, along with Cathy, have been enjoying Andy’s visit immensely.  My eating started out with one of those 360-calorie oat bars from Andy (strawberry flavor today) and moved onto a piece of toast smothered in avocado.  I just finished lunch.  It was leftover from last night: pork burrito, beans with cheese, and chips and guacamole dip.  Now on to the chocolate bar!
 

For those wondering: I did indeed watch the KU-Missouri game yesterday afternoon.  I tried to remain dispassionate (especially when the Jayhawks were down by 19 in the second half) and even had myself nearly convinced that it was only a game; but when the Jayhawks tied it up and pushed it to overtime, I had my snuggie nearby and was ready to do whatever necessary to propel them to victory.  Fortunately, I simply needed to watch quietly and let the players, fans, and wonderful coach do their magic.  Wow.  It was quite the game for those on the western side of the border.  For those on the eastern side: well, some do pronounce it “misery”.
 

We are getting ready to do a little bit of shopping this afternoon, in part to prepare for an upcoming wedding shower and also the upcoming wedding rehearsal dinner/open house we are having at our house for the wedding party and those family members in town for the wedding. I can’t think of anything more exciting to shop for … I think I have enough stamina to be of some help, especially since Cathy has done a lot of the homework for this already, which should make the trips efficient.  It is nice to be able to be included.
 

I want to take this opportunity to thank you all again for your incredible outpouring of love and support, evidenced in so many ways.  I can’t tell you how important it all is to us.  I truly feel better because of it, as does Cathy, Laura, and Dan.  And it doesn’t stop there, I know our entire extended family is buoyed by my improving health.

So, back to the song stuck in my head: What's love got to do with it ... Everything!