Notes from the Infusion Chair -- March 14, 2020

Saturday, March 14

Today marks my 78th cancer treatment.   In a few weeks I will mark my fifth anniversary of my first cancer treatment.   It's still very weird.   Here's what's been rolling around in my mind for the past week or two.

What a week it's been!   If you haven't heard yet, I've become the JV Softball coach for the high school that I work at.   I know!  I can't believe it either!   So this past week I've stayed after work for practice,  getting home around 5:30pm.   It makes for a long day,  but it's so much fun!  

In addition to that,  I've stared selling hair accessories through Lilla Rose.   Lilla Rose is a direct sales company,  but there's no need for party hosting.   If you're interested,  you can order directly from my website and have it shipped directly to your house.  Here's the link to my website:   LillaRose.biz/TammyPayne.  For updates,  specials,  etc.,  like my business facebook page:  Facebook.com/TammyPayneLillaRose.  I use the flexi clips not only to pull my hair back, but as shawl pins.  To me, they work better than traditional shawl pins, and I love the styles!

Something occurred to me the other day while at softball practice.  Becoming the coach was the last straw.  It started last June when I joined the gym.  That was the beginning.  Becoming coach of the softball team was the culmination.  It hit me, out on the field that day -- I don't feel sick anymore.  What?!  Do I even remember what that feels like?!  Apparently I do.  Crazy.  Craziness.  Twilight Zonish.  Don't get me wrong, exhaustion still hits like a ton of brinks all of a sudden quite often, and I still go to bed earlier than I would if I weren't sick, and I still have a terminal illness....  But I feel pretty good these days.

On that wonderful note, the machine is beeping, which marks the end of my treatment today.  More later....

Wednesday, March 18

Wow, so much has happened since I was sitting in the infusion chair on Saturday.  I slept off and on from the time I got home until Tuesday morning.  Spent that whole time in bed.  So much for not feeling sick anymore, huh?  The balance between cancer patient/feeling healthy person is still a little rocky.  Treatment kicks my butt.  It's normal for me to spend two or so days in bed after treatment.

With everything closing down to slow down the spread of this new nasty virus, I'm off from work indefinitely.  I do miss my students, and my softball players.  When we go back is up in the air.  Yesterday morning my husband and I braved the grocery store to get stocked up.  With me having stage 4 cancer and my husband having Parkinson's, we don't want to take any chances, so from now on we're hunkered down, only going out for medical appointments.

Today I ventured upstairs to our laundry room.  Oh, my.  It's going to take me awhile to get that straightened out.  Yes, there are three grown men here ... but they each have their idea of how it should be done.  So I've done the only thing I can think of -- I've kicked them all out of the laundry room.  They're forbidden to step foot in there except to switch laundry, fold towels, etc, at my direction.  I'm hoping that I have the stamina, now that I'm off of work indefinitely, to get it whipped back into shape.  Today I lasted through three loads of dishes in the kitchen as well as a few loads of towels in the laundry room.  Tomorrow, in between loads of laundry, my plan is to pull out my summer clothes and put away my winter clothes before I take my husband to his physical therapy appointment in the afternoon.  Wish me luck!

So here it is, not long after 8pm.  It's time to log off and drift off to sleep to the sounds of The Masked Singer.  Who else is watching?  Wasn't last week's reveal crazy?!   Wow.  I wonder who it will be tonight.  I'll find out tomorrow because I won't be awake when it ends tonight.  Goodnight, family and friends.  Muahh! 😘

So now, before you log off for the night, scroll back up and click on the link to my Lilla Rose page.  Mother's Day is coming up in just a few months!  ☺️