Diagnosis +36, Treatment Day 7

Socks & stickers are amusing the RT's.  I brought cupcakes & chocolate muffins to the staff at TCSC today, which ought to keep them in a good mood, and also make them minimize my wait since they'll be wondering what treats I have for them.

Beautiful job parking today, if I do say so myself.   Back to form!  Today's waiting room was full of loud chatters.  It's interesting - from the conversations that I can't help but overhear in the waiting room, there appears to be immense curiosity in what sort of cancer everybody else has.  One woman was downright offended that another woman left the waiting room without revealing her cancer type.

No-one has approached me for conversation - it must be my characteristic scowl, which I like to think I inherited from my grandpa Walt.  Of course, it also may be that they can't talk to me without laughing at the ridiculous "cancer beard" that adorns my face.

Side effects of the chemo pills are starting to make themselves known.  I'm sure it's going to get much worse, but tonight wasn't particularly pleasant.  No ill-effects from the radiation, that I can tell.  My appetite has suffered, however.  Missing lunch today wasn't a good idea.  I've lost a couple of pounds in the last day or two, which would normally be a good thing, but the dietician keeps warning that when you lose weight under chemo / radiation, it's difficult to put it back on.  So they're all about maintaining weight.  Also, they warned Elizabeth not to let me eat my favorite foods when the nausea kicks in, because later when all this is over, I'll hate my favorite foods.  Hoorah!  A chance to finally break my addiction to tacos!

I'm particularly short-tempered with the kids lately, and extremely whiny, particularly around dinner time.

On my oncologist's orders, I started watching Season 1 of "24."  Don't tell me how it ends.  Elizabeth is already hooked on it.  I have to say that I'm finding it alternatively annoying (people keep doing the stupidest things!) and that if I watch it too close to bed time, it makes me anxious.

On a more positive note, I'm finally making some progress reading Peter Kreeft's "Summa of the Summa." My attempts to read Aquinas' Summa Theologica have all met with failure.  Sadly, Kreeft's edits and footnotes are pulling me along nicely.  I'll feel bad reading just Kreeft's Summa instead of the five volume set of Aquinas' Summa that my in-laws bought me back in 2003, but maybe I can tackle the original Aquinas after completing a four year philosophy degree.

I've actually been able to work a little bit this week - probably up to 12 hours or so, not counting the time at home dealing with emails.  I hope to be able to get back up to 20 hours next week and back to full time after the last of the radiation.

I went to fire up the Triumph today only to find out that the brakes had completely bled out through the leak in the piston on the right rear drum.  Damn it!  If I keep the brake fluid topped off, I can drive around and still have brakes, but once it completely drains then it is a pain in the ass to get even soft braking back.  I've got to break down and either fix the damn thing myself or take it to a repair shop.  Either way, with spring coming, it would be an awful shame not to have the TR3 out & about.

Oh well - off to try to sleep again.  Not having much luck with that tonight.