Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Do I or Don't I? [have chemo brain]

The clinic visit today was as expected. My WBC was .2 (up from .1 where it's been for a couple of weeks), Hg and Platelets high enough to need no transfusions. Liver counts normal--wow what does feel like? Mary said if everything is fine on Friday then we'll schedule a bone marrow biopsy for Monday and proceed.

I don't think I have chemo brain too seriously, but I totally forgot to call the transplant coordinator Monday like I was supposed to. So I don't have a new schedule. Walt is trying to plan a vacation and my transplant at the same time. I'm thinking this schedule is going to be as complicated as they come for my donor brother.

I've been spending at least 20 minutes playing Wii Fit each day, and sometimes a shorter second session. The thing laughs at me quite a lot. There is a ski jump game in the balance section and I've been slow to figure it out. Every time I hit the Start button to start down the ramp, a message, "takeoff failed," and a large snowball went tumbling across the screen. And every time I hit the Retry button, I felt like a fool. I decided it was a hopeless cause, kind of like me and Sudoku. Ain't gonna happen.

Joe, an aid at the hospital, was bragging about how good he was at the ski jump so I came home and slid on it some more. I have achieved takeoff a few times now. I have not figured out exactly how to squat to get my speed up so I can go a very long distance. Well, more accurately, I haven't figured how to REPEAT the squat that makes for a very long distance. My jump pairs tend to be 94 meters and 0 (takeoff failed.) So aside from keeping fit, it is amusing. I am hoping that Conor plays it this weekend so I'll have someone to compete with on the new games. My qualifications range from "unbalanced" to "yoga trainer" (this for deep breathing) to "almost expert." Who knew?

I do have an appetite, though I have to eat small meals to avoid nausea. Different things taste good to me this time. Coffee still tastes good, but hot tea is not very appealing, reverse of the usual. Water is just ghastly. Chocolate is only good if it crunches as in cookies. I'm still losing, but not so fast and I'm still in the acceptable range.

I feel pretty good. I don't like acting sick when I feel good. But I have things to do to get this body ready for the next series of events. I'm able to do a little bit of work, carefully writing everything down in case I do have chemo brain.

Only time will tell.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Back in post - but more by luck than judgement!

Watched an hilarous out-take on TV of some dude doing the Wii ski jump. You need to be careful or we'll be asking you to post your efforts on utube! Now there's a thought...

lots of love #2 GOT

Tara and Sean Yesenski said...

I dont know if you will read this or not because it is on a late blog, but I laughed hard at this one. Sean and I got the Wii fit and he is pretty good at the ski jump (180m is his longest) and I average about what you average. I can get the speed but cant jump at the right time. It's funny how life is like this silly game. We can get some things down just perfect and some things we just cant get the hang of it. We have to work really hard to perfect one little thing. I'm rooting for you to get two PERFECT jumps on this round.