Graphing Shelly

I know I haven't written in a bit. I'll tidily sum up the last chemo experience with the word "suckass." I experienced the mother of all allergic reactions to the steroid Solumedrol (sp?), and it kept me in the hospital from Wed night - Fri morning. PTTH. So no, we still don't know what I'm allergic to. We'll try again tonight, as I go in for my next round. Shelly the lab rat. This product was tested on humans.

What's funny is that, at the time of the reaction and just after, I envisioned an elaborate blog post detailing the experience of an allergic reaction to chemo. After all, it's quite a strange, remarkable event (the convulsive "rigors", the kidney pain, the feeling of the drugs, the freaked-out nurses, my own response to intense pain, etc.) and perhaps you would find it all interesting (in a looking-at-a-car-crash -type way). But I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to put thoughts to keypad, since the whole experience is rather all-consuming, tedious, and exhausting. Annoying, generally. Why dwell. And more to the point, there's a LOT more going on in my life than just the treatment of this disease. I sometimes feel like it's inaccurate to junk up my blog with only cancer tales. Even though I started the blog specifically to keep folks in the loop about my cancer treatment. But it's not really an accurate reflection of my life, and the topic is certainly not one of my interests. Imagine if you were writing a 2-year+ blog on a difficult topic which bored you. The Russian Revolution, perhaps. The evolution of time pieces. Mathematical physics. Classical sanskrit. Cancer.

If you deconstructed "Shelly" into a pie chart, the "cancer" section would be just a sliver. An evil, ever-present, significant, but nonetheless small sliver. Part of your life, like a bad relative you wish would go away. (I don't have any bad relatives, but I know I'm in the minority there.)

Take the last few days, for instance. A lot has happened to me other than cancer/chemo thoughts: My sister gave birth to a gorgeous, perfect son about 36 hours ago. We made an offer on a house today. Among many other things. And on that note-- to all my friends: I have been a CRAPPY correspondant lately. I know I haven't returned your emails/calls. I'm sorry. Expect to hear from me soon.

Off to the hospital shortly. Today's Leap Year, so I think that means things are going to be unusal (in an awesome, once-in-every-four-years-only! -kind of way. Like a half-off sale on iPads.)

And PS--once I get over this next chemo round, I promise to write about other subjects. I'm taking requests for topics now. I like a challenge.