Catching up before my 2nd treatment

So the last few days have been OK for me. I had some worrysome chest pain on Friday and Saturday last weekend, but I dealt with it as best as I could. Since then, things have been better, relatively pain free. We also bought a new mattress at IKEA on Saturday. It's so hard to know if it was the right one to buy or not, but during the last few nights I've slept pretty good on it. The idea in buying a new mattress was to make me as comfortable as possible during the days and nights when I'm in the most pain. I'd rather not have to spend that money right now, but hopefully it will be money well spent.

I was told that my white blood cell counts would drop about 10 days after treatment, which would have been over the weekend. If they did, I didn't feel any different. Maybe they didn't drop too much. I have a feeling though the side effects will intensify with each treatment I get. So far I've been pretty lucky I think, but it's only the beginning. Here's a list of what has or has not affected me so far.

Nausea: No
Pain: Yes
Tiredness: Yes, but not terribly so
Hair loss: No

Yesterday I went and renewed my driver's license. It expires on my birthday next month and I figured I should go before I start losing my hair. The lump of swollen lymph nodes in my neck is barely noticeable anymore so at least that isn't in the photo like it was at graduation in May. But I already know that every time I look at my license I will think of how I have cancer in that photo. I think there will be lots of things this year that I will remember in the future as "when I had cancer."

Today I will be getting my second chemo treatment. It is also Maria's birthday. It sucks that she has to spend her birthday at the hospital with me, but it's just the way the appointments were scheduled. This weekend we had planned on going to see Barenaked Ladies at Summerfest and to go to the Cedarburg Strawberry Festival, but I'm not sure if we'll make either. I'm supposed to avoid crowds, and I'm really concerned about Milwaukee having the highest number of swine flu cases in the country. I really cannot get sick during this as my body won't be able to fight off the infection. I even worry about catching something from eating at restaurants where other people are handling my food, touching my plate, etc.

It's going to be a long summer at home. Hopefully our friends will come visit, and often! (Hint hint!)