Saturday, March 09, 2013

It wasn't all that bad

I did not have an allergic reaction to the new drug. I was nervous enough that I told the infusion nurse that I was nervous and she gave me a little something to help me relax. In addition to the pre meds, I was feeling really loopy. I got the test dose, then the real thing and left feeling pretty good. The next day went well, too. The day after that I spent in the recliner. My back muscles felt like someone had beaten them. Sunday the pain moved to the joints. Every joint hurt. They say that you get flu like symptoms and they are right. It feels like a really bad flu only without the fever and cough. That was the worst day, though. It got a bit better each day until by Thursday I was feeling pretty much back to normal. I even went to work that day!

Mom left on Sunday after a 3 week visit. It is a bit lonely here, but I think the timing was good since I feel so much better now. I think she is happy to be in her own space, too.

I have been knitting. I feel easily overwhelmed and all of the projects that are on the needles right now are adding to that feeling of there being too much to do. I decided to work on that by selecting one larger and one smaller project that I felt like knitting on and ignore everything else. I am knitting on Shellseeker. It's a sweatshirt style sweater, knitted in cotton, stripes of blue and a soft green that looks almost beige. I just finished joining the front pocket to the sweater last night. Next up is the bottom edge ribbing. The body was knitted in the round, top down, so this means that once the ribbing is complete, there remains only the sleeves to knit. I am excited!

I had thought that my chemo treatments and recovery time were going to be a great source of knitting time for me. Chemo made a fool out of me. I had no idea that it would take so much out of me, change my priorities in living life and make me too tired and uninterested in knitting. I feel better in general with this new drug, so I am able to get back to my normal activities. Some of them , anyway. I am still anemic, so I have a low tolerance for activity but  I will work on improving that now that the weather is getting better. That's another thing I was not prepared for - I am cold all the time. I layer, I dress warmly and I still shiver. Warm weather can't come soon enough for me.  Activity will help with the coldness issue and just getting me back  in shape a little so I don't huff and puff just from climbing the stairs from the basement.

My other knitting project is to finish Bobs socks. I am knitting them on DPNs but keeping pace so that I don't get second sock syndrome. I am trying to turn the heel and knit the heel flap but my chemo brain won't let me get it right. I need a pattern to follow and don't have the right stitch count for any of the patterns. Oh, well. I'll get it sooner or later.

Spinning has been an off and on activity but I hope to make it more on than off. I seem to have acquired a huge amount of fiber. Not only do I need to clear some space but I am interested in spinning it for the experience and to see what it will make. I am going to try to spin daily for a minimum of 20 minutes for the rest of the month and see where that takes me.

Have a great weekend.

1 comment:

EGunn said...

The thing I love most about fiber hobbies is that they can always wait until you're ready to do them (and there's a project that suits every brain state). Your chemo symptoms sound a lot like my food intolerance symptoms, and that's just miserable. I'm glad to hear that you didn't react to the new drug, and hope it continues to get better!