Still more patience

A and M:  Thank you so much for the wonderful lasagna!  It was such a hit with the whole family, even the kids.  My parents were impressed that my kids liked spinach in the lasagna, so thanks for putting it in there so that I could impress my parents.  ;)

A (roomie):  Thank you so much for the sweet parcel!  The girls had so much fun with the activities.  A scratched off the rainbow activity and turned it into a thank you note for you, but I'm not sure that I'll ever get it in the mail, so please know that she wrote you a thank you.  :)

M:  Thank you so much for the delicious Mac and Cheese!  The spouse didn't even get any; the girls and I wolfed it down.  Also, thank you for running that errand for me.  It greatly put my mind at ease. I appreciate you!

MIL:  Thank you for the food rubs.  They are divine, and the healing powers are real.   

Guys, I was COMPLETELY misinformed by Dr. Radiation Oncologist about the recovery period.  Completely.  He said, a week of fatigue.  That has come and gone with very little improvement in my energy level.  That's fine, I can be patient, but I'm sorry to have had you all thinking that I'd be functioning by now (especially my co-workers who depend on me!).  I haven't even felt like blogging (obviously).  My days consist of staying awake long enough to stay hydrated (I imagine that hydration is super important for my brain right now), eat some food so that I can take my roids on schedule, go on a short walk, nap for a bit, drink and eat some more, do a few minutes of very gentle floppy yoga, then crawl back to bed.  With of course plenty of kid and dog snuggling sprinkled liberally throughout.

Last Friday I saw Dr. Oncologist (I'll be seeing her weekly for awhile now, I guess) and asked her to clarify what my recovery period should look like.  She said that I should take at least a month off of work until the symptoms of brain swelling are significantly reduced.  (I have a lot of pressure behind my eyes, and against my nose, my left ear, and upper jaws, no doubt from my body calcifying the dead Lloyd tissue and recovering my brain from the radiation treatment that went through it.)  Judging by how lousy I feel right now, I think a month off makes sense.  I need to give my brain plenty of rest to overcome this hardship in the best way that it can.  As only it can.  I need to breathe deeply and let my body heal itself without distraction.

Speaking of distractions, gut disturbances are a major distraction!  I started my new chemo pills last Friday (neratinib; crosses the blood-brain barrier to prevent further Her2+ breast cancer metastases in my brain; I will take this now instead of Herceptin and Perjeta infusions).  All of the literature says that neratinib causes horrible diarrhea (like, put-you-in-the-hospital diarrhea) so when you start taking it they have you also start immodium to prevent the diarrhea before it starts.  Welp.  Guess who has yet to have diarrhea and now hates immodium?  This girl.  My poor guts have been so backed up and confused.  I quit taking the immodium after 2 days and have been feeding my gut bacteria lots of microbially-accessible carbohydrates, and I'm happy to report that things are moving again.  And still no diarrhea, huzzah!  Now I have a cupboard full of immodium at hand for if and when it starts.  Until then, I'll stick with my yogurt and lentils, thank you very much, and see how that does for me.  But I tell you what, belly aches are a severe impediment to resting!  A very uncomfortable distraction from brain healing, to be sure.

Recovery factoid: I'm not to drive for 6 months.  That's not so bad, because I'm fortunate to live in an area of town where I mostly walk places anyway.  And I have plenty of treasured co-workers who will help me to and from work when I'm well enough to go in again.  I'm not worried about the driving.  But thanks in advance for giving me a ride in the future when I need one!  :)  The reason for no driving is because I'm a seizure risk as long as my brain is swollen, and my brain will be swollen for several months.  It'll take my body several months to reduce Lloyd down to his dead little calcified self, and my brain will be full of immune cells and swelling while that process is taking place.  I need to honor that process.  So...yea.  Longer recovery road than I thought!  Patience, patience, patience.