It’s been a while since my last post and you deserve an update. Round 5 of chemo went in and went through its three-week cycle without incident. But along the way I made an observation. Treatment right now is pulling me simultaneously to two opposite ends of a continuum. At one end of the continuum I am surely more healthy than I have been in a long time. At the other end I am just plain tired. That’s why I’m not posting about Round 5 until I’m actually in the middle of Round 6.

We were told before treatment that chemotherapy is cumulative and that it starts to take a greater toll over time. I guess that’s what’s happening now. The fatigue they warned us about has set in. My legs feel like every day is leg day at the gym. I randomly fall asleep on the couch without warning. Kathleen took me out for an afternoon walk one day. She wanted to take a new route and we started heading east on a walk down Walnut Rd. It was a lovely tree-lined street full of fall color. And it was all downhill. Nothing for a normal person but under the circumstances I thought about asking her to go ahead and come back for me with the car.

Yet at the same time, I also can’t help but notice that I’m capable of doing more and more every day.

See what I mean? Two different ends of the continuum at the same time. There’s no middle ground. Surely, that’s a description of the cancer experience.