as i mentioned in my last post, there was a pox upon our house last weekend, so we took things very slow and easy. lots of ginger ale and quiet activities and looming paranoia that i was going to catch whatever unpleasant stomach bug andy had... but thankfully, i emerged unscathed.

monday and tuesday were work days as usual. wednesday, i was on campus at osu for an all-day training. classes are out, so the area wasn't too crazy for morning traffic. easy parking garage access, starbucks literally across the street via crosswalk, can't complain. during the training, i sat at a table of people from various agencies and disciplines; we all worked together pretty well and overall the day was pretty interesting. later in the evening, i caught up with a friend for a spontaneous dinner, which was lovely. kind of a random day all around, which was a welcome, weird change of pace.

thursday was chemo day as usual. round six of taxol: halfway done! nothing of note, other than having a very chipper nurse that day. i spent the afternoon sleeping on the couch, also as usual. then it was dinner, finishing the last of christmas shopping, and an 8pm showing of the rise of skywalker. (shout out to the star wars franchise for consistently releasing movies right around andy's birthday). this made for a bit of a late evening, but at least we knew we didn't have to worry about spoilers!

generally speaking, the weekly thursday chemo infusions are still going well. i basically sleep all thursday afternoon, but am back to work on fridays. i have already mentioned the ongoing stomach issues and HOT FLASHES and dr pepper weirdness. on that note, i think things are overall becoming blander as far as my taste buds. i'm not getting any metallic tastes (a common chemo issue), but things are just becoming more and more... meh. so that makes mealtimes less fun. i am also getting some discoloration on my nailbeds, mostly on my thumbs and big toes. it's dark enough that multiple people have asked what happened, how did you hurt your thumbs? but they aren't lifting up or falling off or hurting or anything unpleasant like that, so i'll take "darkly colored nails as a side effect" with no complaints. another recent development is that basically the lining of my nose is sort of... well, not bloody, exactly, as i'm not getting nosebleeds. but anything involving kleenex also involves a trace of pink or red color. this is pretty normal due to the taxol, but is still always slightly disconcerting to see. ah, the joys of chemo.

so, somehow christmas is upon us? this is clearly impossible, but the calendar shows otherwise. plenty of travel and hustle and bustle and hanging out with family... let's do this, week 18. merry christmas!