Chemo Round 40 and Turning 31

Chemo Round 40 at Norris went as planned – no problems, in and out quickly, fun times with Lenz and my crew, and some good old-fashioned cancer killing. I had a little bit of a gross headache on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, but that was nothing your buddy WunderGlo couldn’t handle. By Thursday, I was back in action and in the office. This round, I started tinkering with chemo a little bit – upping my steroid dosage just a tiny bit and getting fluids on Wednesday – in hopes of making chemo as easy and smooth as possible. Don’t get me wrong: it’s always fairly easy for me, thankfully. I focus on hydrating and resting and usually get through those couple of down days unscathed. But next year is going to be a very big year for me with the “On a Mission” project I’ve mentioned, and I need chemo to slow me down as little as possible then. So, for now, I’m experimenting on my end. The extra 5 milligrams of steroids made Monday night a breeze and most of Tuesday super easy, so I think I’ll stick with it. The fluids on Wednesday alleviated any dehydration-related issues (parched tongue, dull headache, reduced energy levels), so I’m definitely going to stick with that, too. I’m a little bit of a mad scientist over here, doing what I can to help my body take chemo in stride. I bounced back from chemo by Thursday, and not a moment too soon. My birthday was coming up, after all, and I was hosting not one but two parties. Friday night was an old school slumber party with a small group of friends, and Saturday night was a blow-out bash at my casa with 50 or so of my family and friends. As always, I’m in charge of parties – even my own – so I had to jump on figuring out our caterer, where I’d get my yummy vegan cake, buying alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages (in honor of my liver, I didn’t drink a drop of alcohol – actually, I haven’t had a drink all year), getting a few decorations together, and creating a slideshow and playlist. I took care of everything just in time (actually, for the sake of being completely honest, I was about 15 minutes late to my own party on Saturday), and had an incredible couple of nights with people I love dearly. My birthday always means a lot to me, and now that I’m going head to head with cancer every day, it means even more. Getting older, day by day, is the ultimate “eff you” to cancer, and one that I relish. Spending my birthday with my friends and family (including Dr. Lenz) made it even better. And knowing that the coming year will be the biggest of my life (with my big project and all) made it the best birthday yet.