Chemo Stinks

I wanted to be a bit more rude in that headline, but decided to spare the feelings of some of my gentler readers. Suffice to say that I would happily donate to any cause that could find a way to cure cancer without chemotherapy. It is a serious drag.

We drove to Santa Barbara on Friday (about a five hour drive) to visit Em for Parents & Family Weekend at UCSB and I was feeling tired but mostly okay. Saturday I was wiped and losing energy fast and by later in the evening, I was accosted by the same cramps that had attacked me on the Saturday after my second infusion of AC. I was pretty miserable for most of Saturday evening/night and Sunday just kept nibbling at carbs to keep my stomach on a mostly even keel as we drove home.

Today, Monday, I feel mostly better but really am so ready to be over this. Ah well. One more infusion of the AC left (next Tuesday) and then we get to do a change-up to the Taxol. I figure, if nothing else, at least my body will be faked out by the change in meds and things should improve, even if just temporarily.

Meanwhile. It was wonderful to see our older daughter in her new milieu and thriving. She's a non-partier at a party school and so I think it's fair to say that she's not finding a surplus of new boon companions. But she's putting herself out there (interning for CALPIRG and working costume crew for the theater department's fall production of Woyzeck) and she seems to be loving some of her classes.

After a five+ hour drive, we arrived Friday evening and picked up Em and took her downtown to State Street for dinner. The next day, Saturday, I was partially mobile and after an aborted campus tour (We bailed after this pithy observation by one of our tour guides: "We have five nobel laureates here at Santa Barbara and they are professors. And they teach"), Em took us into the infamous Isla Vista where we had pizza for lunch. For the rest of the day, I hung out at the University Center while Frank and the girls walked the campus. Em and Maggie had some nice sister-time and went rock climbing at the Rec Center later in the afternoon (Emily: "I'm pretty sure Maggie is part spider monkey") while I got cozy on a sofa at the University Center and Frank checked out the bookstore.

The weather was mostly foggy and/or undecided, so we never did get to the beach or the pool, but that's okay. Emily was the main attraction and we got to see lots of her.

We're looking forward to having her home, if only for a few days, at Thanksgiving.