I’ve finished my ninth round of chemo now and it continues to be quite bearable.  Maybe the IV Vitamin C and the acupuncture I get every week a day or two after the chemo are doing some good!  The anti-osteoporosis shot I get every month laid me a bit low for a few days last week, but in general I’ve been feeling pretty normal, and life has been what I would call normal-ish.  When I’m not feeling so hot I find it hard to work or do schoolwork, because I don’t feel like thinking.  So I do a lot of reading and sitting around in bed watching Netflix and wondering when I will ever be motivated enough to “get back to work.”  And then I am, so I do.  Eric and I have been talking about the purpose of this cycle for me.

In a few weeks I’m going to have a consultation at the Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment in Skokie, Illinois (next to Chicago).  Should be interesting to find out how they would treat me, and if there are pieces I can adopt here (or if there is any way I could get treatment there without having to move).  They integrate chemotherapy, nutrition, supplementation, massage, psychotherapy, exercise, and mind-body strategies all in one place and set of care providers.

Hopping without smooth transition from topic to topic, here’s a quote I found on the blog of a mother with metastatic breast cancer, Lisa Bonchek Adams, writing about her three young and early-teen children:

“I just wish I could be there for them to outgrow
by choice,
by time,
by age.”

(Ouch.)

Eric has read, and I will read soon, the book Radical Remission by Kelly Turner, Ph.D.  It’s an investigation into the cancer patients who get well or live much longer than expected–what did they do, and are there commonalities we can learn from? Perhaps more on that later.  For now, time to go see how the kids are doing packing for 3 weeks away at camp!