End of the Week

Sorry I haven't updated in the last couple days, they've been working me pretty hard and when I'm not doing that, I'm eating or sleeping.

Thursday and Friday, PT worked my legs and abs really hard while OT worked my neck, back and hands. All of the OT work is pretty similar, they bring out a bunch of different games and I have to put this peg to that hole and then put it back. It's more or less like going to Cracker Barrel with less appetizing food and I have to sit up straight the entire time.

Today I didn't realize I was going to have any therapy but sure enough, right after I had finished off half of the Jelly Belly's my mom had brought me, PT came in. The gym was pretty empty so she wanted me to walk all over the place. I knew that was going to be my only therapy for the day so I decided to push myself. I was fine for the first 20 minutes but then the stomach full of sugar caught up with me and I had a huge crash and lost all of my energy. If it was just me, I probably would have stopped right then and gone back to bed but after a little discipline by ridicule, she got me up again.

Thursday, I walked about 20'; Friday I tried to double it and went 50' (both of these were after 3 other therapy sessions so I was already pretty tired). Today I went about 500' and rode a bicycle-type machine for 10 minutes. I think I'll be regretting that if they expect me to do therapy tomorrow.

I can't remember if Melissa touched on this earlier so I'll say it again. I've lost about 2/3 of the hair on my scalp. What's still there is well on its way for needing a haircut so Mom bought a set of clippers and I'm going to buzz my head down a bit tomorrow and just let it all grow out at the same time.

Another sign of recovery: The nurses have been having trouble pulling blood since the chemo fried my veins and they haven't been vi sable. One nurse told me that it sometimes takes up to 10 years for the veins to recover after chemo. Well Thursday morning, the veins in my feet and hands popped out again and they have been able to easily hit veins in my arm since. This is good because I was getting REALLY tired of being poked multiple times at 5:30 each morning.

Eric

P.S. How about them Boilermakers! Share of the Big Ten, first since the mid 90's.