The weather here in Chicago has been chilly, and yes windy. Not too much outdoor venturing yesterday except for mass that I'll exlpain below. It's supposed to rain for the next 7 days straight. This will significantly set back my marathon training! I was up to .002 miles per day!
I feel good today. We just got back from a nice but chilly walk. We went food shopping which I enjoy because pushing the cart gives me something to lean on. On the way to the store a man said to me "man you look bad, you pull a muscle playin ball?? I didn't think my walking was noticeably altered but my wife gave me a look like uhhh yeaaah!
This morning I started Neupogen (filgastrin) injections by giving myself 2 shots in the abdomen. The purpose of these shots is to help boost stem cell production in preparation of the "harvest" I love that word don't you? I have to take the shots for the next 6 days. I have to take them by 7:00 AM God knows why, so of course I woke up at 5:00 to get in the zone. After 6 years of IM Avonex injections in my upper thighs I knew it would be a piece of cake but needles are needles and they're never fun. My wife, bless her heart is physically unable to stick me with a needle. Last year when we determined my vitamin D was very low she attempted to give me an IM vitamin D injection in the butt. After 4-5 failed attempts of "half sticks" with the needle flailing around halfway in we determined it's probably better I maintain the responsibility for injections. The needles were indeed a piece of cake.
I also started taking the heavy duty antifungal and antibiotic medications as I will drop into a neutropenic state tomorrow or Monday for a short while from the chemotherapy last Monday. This means I basically have no immune system and I have to be extra careful to stay away from sneezers and coughers. This HSCT process is really interesting when you think about it. First they blast you with one day of chemo to lower your immunity, then they "super charge" your stem cell production (immunity) for the harvest, then they ablate your immunity again with 5 days of chemo and then reinfuse you with your harvested stem cells
We have a beautiful cathedral right across from our apartment. At mass last Sunday they mentioned a special mass yesterday afternoon where the Cardinal from Chicago would be the Celebrant. My wife and I, not having too many conflicting meetings on our calendar decided we would try to fit it in. When we arrived at the cathedral 30 minutes early (to get a good pew) we were pleased to see that the mass was being celebrated by not only Cardinal Francis George from Chicago, but also Cardinal Dolan from NYC, O'Malley from Boston and Mahoney from LA. For those of you not familiar with the accoutrements of the catholic church, that's a lot of pointy hats! I was so glad I wore my nice jeans and sneakers while everyone else was black tie (oops!). It turns out there was a big fundraiser last night for Catholic Universities of America so that's why they were all there. However, considering there were only 150-200 congregants it felt more like a personal power prayer service from the higher echelon of the US catholic church for my wife and I.
After mass I did what every God fearing Irishman is required by law to do... I took my wife to a bar! That's right mi lassie and I bellied up just in time for happy hour. My wife took us out by ordering one of their special and I might add delicious spicy bloody mary's and I went with a eh hemm... Virgin Mary. I realize it's probably just me but the look on a barmaid's face when an Irishmen bellies up and orders anything other than a beer or a shot is well Disappointment. I was waiting for her to ask me something like, should I bring your peanut butter and jelly sandwich before or after your chocolate chip cookies? I tried to recover from my Low T count drink order by asking for hot wings yeah that's right I said HOT!! And no blue cheese on the side to cool them down either! (she didn't know I'm not allowed to eat blue cheese during chemo) ((and I didn't tell her)).
So my wife and I sat there for awhile, talking and watching everyone having fun drinking and having cocktails and drinking and ordering drinks... Then I ate 1 of those ridiculously hot wings, paid the bill and we went home.
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