O How the Wind Blows

The wind doth blow, and blow, and blow. Anything not tied down today will end up in the next county. It’s been warm and humid, and did I mention windy. ¶ Today I’ve not been myself, that’s for sure. I’ve been exhausted since getting out of bed. Aside from one decent night’s sleep of nearly 10 hours in the last week, the rest of the nights have maxed out at 5 hours or less. ¶ Monday I met the home health nurse in charge of my case. She took my blood pressure, temperature, and oxygen level. She also perused my home to determine if I could live here, I guess. She was very positive and declared I wouldn’t need home health for long.

¶ The occupational therapist came in the afternoon, perused the house, declared I was doing very well and would not need her services, probably. ¶ The physical therapist came Wednesday afternoon and declared I would not need his services much longer as far as he could determine. He wants to take a walk with me outside but declared he was not interested in walking in the crummy weather we had that day. ¶ Tuesday I saw all three of my doctors, plus labs. The primary signed my home health form, gave me some antibiotic ointment for the gash in my arm achieved when I fell in the closet and hit my arm on one of the shelves. The oncologist pointed out new little things on my CT scan and MRI and declared I would start on a new chemo drug. The radiation oncologist talked about my new little spots on the brain and what he would do with his Gamma Knife. ¶ The new chemo is a new drug called Zepzelca or lurbinectedin. Most common side effects are tiredness, low white and red blood cell counts, nausea, decreased appetite, muscle and joint pain, vomiting, cough, etc. I had my first infusion on Wednesday. ¶ The upside of this new drug is that it is one infusion every 21 days. The old drug was five days of infusion every three weeks. That is much less seat time in the infusion center.

¶ The home health nurse said that most of the side effects, if not all, would subside after three days. I hope she’s right. This is day number 3 and I’d like to get on with my life. I’m not built to complain about my health or just sit around and wonder what will happen next. ¶ Back to this windy day. The wind has whipped off the canvas cover of the outside grill twice. In addition, some other household’s grill cover ended up in my front garden. I posted on the neighborhood watch bulletin board but so far there have been no takers.

¶ Sophia has decided that windy days are best for sleeping which she has done in abundance today. I wish I could borrow some of her sleep genes. They would be especially appreciated about 2 AM when I start tossing and turning and wondering if I’ll ever sleep again. ¶ In spite of the dry soil, due to lack of rain and excess of wind, new, little flowers continue to poke through with great determination. They look so fragile. Some tiny red tulips appeared today. There is squill and fragile irises as well as day lily leaves pushing up in abundance. ¶ One of these days I’ll try for a drive to Omaha where the daffodils at the gardens there are reported to be profuse. ¶ It’s amazing what spring does to uplift the senses and improve the mood. It is truly a gift. I hope you have a good week. I am determined to do so.