A Good Week!

As Susan and I sit in our study and catch up after the week I'm happy to report that this has been a really great week. After the tough Monday with Roy's passing, we managed to turn to look at all the positive things that are going on and have embraced the good stuff that's come our way this week.

Here are some of the highlights of the week:

• Showering! Yes, you all probably take this for granted but after getting the PICC line out, showering has emerged as a really nice, simple pleasure in life. Being able to just jump under the warm water, soap up and not be worried about getting Pablo wet has really been great.
• I played soccer Wed. night! My men's team was desperate for warm bodies so I threw on a jersey and did my best imitation of a turn style - turning around, watching the play go by me. I was just horrible. The prednisone has atrophied my legs quite a bit (especially my hamstrings and calves ) so I literally can't sprint more than about 10 yards without feeling like I'm going to fall over. But despite how unbelievably unfit I am, it was just, pure, unadulterated joy to be back on the pitch. All the guys were really supportive and it was just a wonderful moment in my recovery. I suspect that in a month or so I might be able to actually play a little bit. 
• More good bike rides. With the removal of the max heart rate restriction I've been able to put the hammer down some more on the bike which has been great. Painful, hard, frustrating, trying, but great. I managed to get up Antelope at Hall Ranch and up and around the lollypop. I went on a weekday morning and it was just a beautiful morning to be out on the trail. 
• Swimming! Got in the pool today for the first time in about 22 weeks. Felt awesome! I have a bit of phlebitis in a vein in my left arm from all the blood work that's been done in that arm so that caused me some issues while doing freestyle. But I think the swimming will really help the veinous blood flow in my arm and that will help the phlebitis get resolved. 
• More home improvement! Did a fun project to upgrade our master shower a bit. Now this might look like a Decepticon from the Transformers movie:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  But it's really the valve assembly for the shower (note the awesome solder joints :) . And here is the sheetrock work to put the wall back together after the Decepticon was installed:
  
  
  
  
  And here is the finished product:
  
  
  
  
  
  Yeah, I admit it's pretty boring but when you leave an engineer at home for a few weeks these types of projects come out of the woodwork. And the previous fixture was pretty ratty so definitely an upgrade.
  
• My voice is back! The singing, exercise and general healing of the last few weeks has really helped my voice. This was really one of the issues I wanted to get resolved before I went back to work. It's hard to be a consultant when you can't talk without coughing or your voice is so weak people are afraid you're going to pass out just from trying to say something. So this is a big milestone. 
• Along with the all the specific things, in general my energy level is higher and I'm starting to believe that I'm getting better. Knowing that at least for the next few months (and hopefully for years and years to come!) I'm just getting healthier and healthier is really an emotional boost.

So a really, really good week. Usually my low day in the chemo cycle is yesterday so I'm really excited that I feel pretty good today, which is hopefully an indicator of more good recovery to come in the next few weeks.

Enjoy your weekend and know that I will be getting better and enjoying life!