Chemo Cycles - 3 to go

Hello all,

I seem to have survived my first five chemo cycles thanks to Ellen's unstinting support during and between chemo. She is my rock of Gibraltar - only much softer and speaks English. I can't give enough accolades to my mother for her incredible emotional support - even now dealing with her own health problems and advanced age. My only sadness is that I may not have the health and strength to support her, and you my supporters, in the next months and years. This sucks.

The colostomy bag thing is getting real stale already. But it's permanent so there's not much point in complaining. On the good side, my old bicycle seat seems to fit my new anatomy. I tested out my rear end yesterday and actually rode (gently) for 30 minutes along the river. No aches or pains today. My bike pants fit more loosely than pre-diag. Those quads (and all the muscles) really went away after surgery. I'll likely need a new bike with a good suspension and seat to avoid damage.

Well, I certainly have found the ultimate weigh-loss regimen. To quote another blogger - when they tell you "eat, eat eat" you immmediately lose your appetite - how true - especially during chemo but also with radiation.

It seems a lot of famous cancer patients have hit the blogs and written books - Fran Drescher's http://www.cancershmancer.org/ has her blog. Fran has a lot of advice in dealing with doctors - mostly good stuff.
And Randy Pausch's blog with his really tough fight against pancreatic cancer. http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/news/index.html

Ok, enough for a first post in the blogosphere