No news is good news

I know, I know, it’s been a full week since my last post on the blog. I’ve started to hear some flack about it.

It’s not that I’m withholding any news it’s just that it gets repetitive and difficult for me to make interesting for public consumption. As you know, the chemo treatments start with a 6-day period where I’m connected to an IV. The first day is approximately 6 hours at Dr. Richards office where I receive an array of pre-meds for anti-nausea, etc., followed by the Taxotere and Cisplatin. I leave the office with the IV pump that I carry around for 5 days as the 5FU is infused at 2ml per hour. The IV period, aside from dragging around and sleeping with the pump, is a piece of cake.

The second week of the cycle, where I am right now, is the toughest for me as this is when side affects specific to my mouth/throat kick in. As I’ve mentioned in prior posts this significantly affects my ability to eat/drink and needless to say it is uncomfortable, frustrating, and it gets me a bit cranky. I typically lose 4-6 pounds during this period but as long as I’m able to recover going into week #3 I quickly gain that weight right back as I go on an eating frenzy right up until the next treatment begins.

That’s the cycle and so far it’s been fairly consistent from treatment to treatment. So, you can see that this would be tough for me to make interesting on the blog each and every treatment cycle. However, I will admit to being a little concerned at this moment because I’m still significantly affected by mouth issues and in prior treatment cycles I was on the verge of starting the chowing down period at this point. As I said, very frustrating. And with as much as we watch Food Network in this house… oye.

Quick update on Mintz’s Mentschen…. we’re collectively up to $13,200 raised! It’s still very early in the training/fundraising process since our first LiveSTRONG Challenge event, the ride in Philadelphia, isn’t until late August. So this early total is awesome! And just this week we actually picked up a total stranger as a new team member. Amy Thomas, the new team member, indicated via email to Dan Nies that she was convinced to join the team after reading about the Mintz’s Mentschen team in the LiveSTRONG Newsletter and by my picture. She said I remind her of a close friend of hers. Dan Nies told me how impressed he was that I’m now influencing total strangers…. LOL. I don’t know about that but it sure is great watching our team, and effort to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, continue to grow. I sure wish that I could join the team in Austin, however, I’m having to use vacation time for the first 2 days of each treatment cycle and I’m just not going to have enough time to absorb the trip as well. No biggie, we have an awesome group for Philly and I WILL be there!

Eating frenzy or not I’m looking forward to an easy 15-20 miler this weekend.