on monday, i was still feeling off-kilter enough to not work from home. given that i would mostly just be hanging about the house, it seemed a good day for a visitor, and my good friend paul was kind enough to drive up from athens on his day off. i have known paul and his wife laura for over fifteen years now, and for a good portion of that, i lived close enough to see his house from my apartment at the time. for the first several years, i was able to simply walk to their house, across an open field, in a matter of minutes. however, at some point, some storage units were built on the field, and eventually, a chain link fence around them, cutting off my easy path. sad trombone. in response to this injustice, paul made me a parking sign, fashioned from pvc piping and a bucket filled with concrete. it looked just as ridiculous as it sounds, and set it up in the driveway whenever i drove over to visit them.

andy had never seen this sign, but had heard the tales of it. "well, we should make him a parking sign." oh, yes. yes, we should. thanks to the internet and a fake tree in the shed we inherited, we did indeed make him a parking sign.

this photo was taken shortly after paul pulled into the driveway. i could hear him laughing from inside his car.

paul got the grand tour of the house, and we soon headed for lunch at tommy's diner. we chatted and caught up on the way there, and back, through franklinton, and back at the house. talking with paul is always time well spent. he headed off in the afternoon, and i spent a few hours napping, and chilling for the evening.

it was apparent by tuesday that it was time for the mohawk to go. it was thinning/falling out and looking less badass than it deserved. and so, off with her hair! andy used clippers and razors and the hawk was no more. the sides, which were previously shaved close, had not really fallen out, and had maintained very short hairs. on the other hand, the longer mohawk hairs had mostly fallen out, creating a reverse mohawk look. this may sound cool and interesting, but mostly it presents as male pattern baldness, which is not exactly the look i'm going for. alas. i would have been fine rocking the sinead o'connor look, but for now it will be hats until all the hair bits fall out.

both tuesday and wednesday i worked from home for part of each day. as with previous treatments, i was feeling 100% by thursday, and i returned to work. it is an interesting rhythm to the weeks. friday was another workday, and another fire pit, hot dogs, and s'mores sort of evening with a friend later on. i could get used to this.

on saturday, my parents came down for their traditional Come See The Colors And Trees And Hills Because Northwest Ohio Is Flat Farmlands autumnal visit. when i lived in athens, hocking hills was the usual destination. but saturday called for 100% chance of rain pretty much all day, so i thought we should stick with the columbus metro parks. why drive an hour in the rain when you can drive a quarter of an hour in the rain and still get equally drenched either way? we brought rainjackets and umbrellas, hiked the highbanks overlook trail, and surprisingly, we were not the only ones. the few, the proud, the soaking wet. we mostly kept inside for the rest of the day, with journeys to restaurants, football watching, and yahtzee playing.

sunday was my first time playing bass at church in quite awhile. it was good to meet new fellow musicians and play together. after church and lunch, we all took a walk around the neighborhood before my parents headed home. i promptly took a nap before waking up to watch the browns be the browns.

coming up is Week 10, which will include my last round of this particular chemotherapy on thursday. given last treatment's resulting nausea, i am not exactly looking forward to it, but there is a certain amount of relief that it will be the last of its kind. then, it will be new, different drugs and side effects... but i will cross that bridge when i come to it. let's do this.

on monday, i had the holiday off (government work is great), and i spent it going shopping and taking on house projects. i visited lowe's and menards and came home with a new cordless drill, smoke alarm, and two light fixtures. andy has no issues with the light fixtures in the upstairs hallway and the laundry room. i, on the other hand, have had strong feelings regarding their generic look. so as of monday, the spiky textured glass single-bulb hallway light is gone, and has been replaced with a three-bulb hallway light that actually provides decent illumination and is more aesthetically pleasing. the same spiky textured light in the laundry room will also be replaced some day. monday was not that day. but between installing the light, the smoke alarm, and finally cleaning the living room so that my various and sundry cancer paraphernalia wasn't taking over the whole place, i had a nice, productive day.

tuesday and wednesday were back to work as usual. both evenings were taken up by board games; one with a group of andy's work friends, and the other evening just the two of us at home.

thursday was chemo, round three. blood work was declared fine, and i had all the usual infusions: anti-nausea, adriamycin, cytoxan. we were out of there by about 11:45am, took a quick walk to micro center to pick up a computer mouse, and then we were off to have pho. we have a usual order of three items that we share: chicken pho, spring rolls, and chicken wings. all was well, except that i only wanted two of my usual three chicken wings. odd. by the time i got home, it was apparent that nausea was going to make a visit this time around. i took an anti-nausea pill and mostly slept for the rest of the afternoon and evening. unfortunately for andy, the plan was that i was going to make a pot roast in the instant pot for the evening meal. once it was obvious i wasn't up to it, this responsibility fell to him, and as it turns out, we had a mighty fine pot roast that evening. this guy... he's a keeper.

as usual, friday was back to the oncologist's office for my follow-up neulasta injection. i was still slightly nauseated and pretty tired, so afterwards, i mostly lounged on the couch for the afternoon. after a few plan changes involving in-laws and schedules and food options, our friends talinn and daniel stopped by that evening. we gave them an abbreviated house tour, enjoyed dinner, and caught up. it was good to see them.

if i recall correctly, i spent most of saturday sleeping a whole heck of a lot. breakfast and lunch were events that happened, but mostly were just interruptions of my napping. i may have been working on computer file transfers or something on my laptop at some point. entirely unsure. oh and that was the day we enjoyed the new neighbors and their bro friends shouting in merriment on their screened-in back porch. i am fairly certain they were not communicating, just shouting; i didn't venture out to confirm. hopefully this is not going to be a common occurrence. later in the evening, we had our friend brent over to hang out and enjoy hot dogs and s'mores over the fire pit. once again, it was a perfect evening for a fire. afterwards, andy and i played a game he was excited about, and i crushed him at it. good times!

today, sunday, i managed to make it through church (to be clear, this is a reflection of my symptoms, not the teaching), then came home to nap before andy's parents came over for lunch. we relaxed and spent time with them through the early afternoon. this evening has been spent puttering, working on laptop stuff, a small project, and lounging. it's really quite amazing how much one human can sleep, with the right attitude, dedication, and chemo regimen! hopefully i perk up as usual once Week 9 begins. let's do this.

i spent most of the week continuously feeling several things in a ridiculous cycle, over and over, like an idiot. firstly, enjoying the heck out of having a mohawk. secondly, wondering why everything kept feeling so drafty? thirdly, realizing, oh right, MY HEAD IS MOSTLY SHAVED. fourthly, knowing that a hat would solve the issue, but fifthly, also knowing that the friction of a hat will likely bring all remaining hairs, mohawk and all, closer to their full demise. and so, the mohawk has been out and about in columbus in all its salt-and-pepper glory. magnificent.

monday was a sleep in kinda day, and i worked from home in the afternoon. i was, however, pretty tired, moreso than the previous work from home monday. so it may be that the next post-chemo monday is a full day off. we shall see. tuesday and wednesday were also work from home days, almost exactly similar to the previous ones. there was a moment around lunchtime on tuesday where i was not super enthused about the idea of the smell of food, which had not happened before. in an overabundance of caution, i took an as needed nausea pill just in caseies; all was well. wednesday, i thought several times, i could have gone in to work! and then i would have the same moments of lightheadedness as before and think, ah right! that's why i'm home. relax.

thursday, i was once again feeling 100%, and it was back in to the office. good to see everyone again and to take care of all the in-person stuff on my desk and in my mailbox. that evening, andy and i met up with our friend josh for dinner. as of that morning, we had not yet decided upon where to eat. i had the thought of schmidt's (where i have had their cream puff, but not any of the haus's sausages) in german village. and then i realized there was the perfect place just a few blocks from there... the old mohawk restaurant. i had been there a million years before, and andy half a million. josh was game. and so we met there, taking the obligatory photo before going in: the mohawk restaurant awning, the olde mohawk sign, the mohawk street sign, and my mohawk. a little much? yes, obviously. (the meatloaf and mashed potato special was pretty good, btw). afterwards, andy and i took a walk around schiller park, as it was a perfect autumn night. glorious.

friday was another day at work, and dinner with andy's parents. all four of us are in various states of disrepair (don't grow old, kids!), so part of the evening's conversation revolved around our various injuries and ailments. comical.

saturday was mostly spent setting up a new laptop and transferring files and doing various technical and administrative life stuff. at some point, we ventured out of the house to do some grocery shopping, which included s'more fixins. our house has an in-ground fire pit off of the patio, both of which were constructed by the previous owner(s). we had never gotten around to using in the sixteen or so months of living here, and it was high time it got some use. andy set it all up, and we enjoyed a lovely bonfire and some tasty s'mores on a beautiful evening. watching the last of the glowing embers, crowding closer and trying to catch the dissipating heat... always one of the best parts of fall. classic.

on sunday, i had made arrangements to introduce myself to the worship leader to put my bass (and other musical) skills to use in the future, despite my limited and random schedule... something i am looking forward to doing again. meanwhile, there was a 5K walk/run that was being put on by my department at work, which i did not sign up to volunteer or participate in because, well, my life is kind of weird with scheduling in Cancer Land. unbeknownst to me, my colleagues who participated wore pins and walked (or ran) in my honor because, well, they are just fantastic. i was informed of this a few hours later via text and a photo. i felt the love. like i have said before... i have good people, all around me. at work, at church, in person, in the wild, all around the world, virtually and otherwise, and including you, whichever category of those you fall into. week 7 is in the books and week 8 is underway. let's do this.

we've made it to Week 6. last i left off, i was having a nice spaghetti dinner with the in-laws. the next day, saturday, was pretty chill, if i recall. mostly puttering around the house, then board gaming with the wolfes for the evening. sunday was church and then watching the browns embarrass the ravens (GO BROWNS!).

monday through wednesday seemed basically normal, going in to work 8-to-5, nothing out of the ordinary. thursday was two weeks to the day of the first round of chemo, and thursday was the day my hair started getting weird. it had been noticeably thinner for a day or two, but thursday was the day i could no longer do my hair as usual without losing more hair than i would prefer. so, minimal hair product, hair is laying low. ok, cool. i can handle this. post-shower, it was prepping for chemo day. this time i remembered to glob on the numbing cream and use the recommended Glad Press and Seal to keep the cream in the right place (Press and Seal works oddly well on human skin... i learn the weirdest things in Cancer Land). arrived at the oncologist's office, got blood drawn, met with dr. m, who declared that my blood counts were normal ("wait, like chemo normal, or normal person normal?" "normal person normal!"), so i was cleared for my second round of chemo. nothing much different as compared to the first round, aside from a different seat, different nurses, and choosing a popsicle instead of plain ice chips for my adriamycin cryotherapy. the nurse slowed down my rate of cytoxan drip (that was the drug that made me sneezy and sinus-y last time), which helped, aside from the saline drip running out halfway through and sort of making the cytoxan more concentrated, nullifying the slower rate. but we got it figured out, and we were out of there at around noon. we ran a few errands, headed home, had dinner delivered (thanks, arin!) and basically chilled out at home.

friday i slept in pretty good, and after a quick lunch of leftovers, it was back to the oncologist's office for my neulasta injection. nothing new, it stung the same way it did for the first round. good times. then we were headed to northwest ohio. there were several reasons to visit for the weekend: high school alumni marching band on friday for homecoming; my dad's birthday; and i hadn't seen my family since getting diagnosed. since i had tolerated the first round of chemo relatively well, it seemed like a good opportunity to go. i can sleep pretty much anywhere, so what does it matter where i am geographically? so andy drove us northwestward, and i basically zonked out for the three hour tour. my mom had an early dinner ready for us, and then it was off to the high school for the annual alumni band. i hadn't been sure i was going to make it at all, so i was a bit of a wildcard, but things had been arranged so that i could join at the last minute, without actually marching across the field for pregame. it was good to catch up with previous directors as well as classmates and fellow alumni, and it was good to be able to join and play trumpet as i had for the last five years. after pregame, it turned into a cold, windy evening (perfect high school football weather, frankly), and we made it through the halftime band performances before heading home. after an hour or two of a nap, i received texts that the game was over, and we joined friends for a post-game gathering to hang out and catch up a little. it was an ambitious day as far as my energy levels, but my body handled it well, and i was thankful to be able to make it through and enjoy all the activities.

on saturday, we had an early lunch at the home restaurant (HOME FRIES 4 EVA). later in the afternoon, my brother stopped by to say hi and drop off a birthday card. eventually i took a shower (more hairs coming loose, causing me to really start planning what to do about that), and it was off to texas roadhouse for my dad (and his twin's) birthday, and then after that, a visit to my grandparents. then, finally, it was back home. it should be noted that in all the between times, i was basically zonked out in the car. so tired. so very tired.

sunday morning was a bit of a blur of meeting up with old friends, seeing people at my parents' church, and lunching. then we packed up the car and headed back to columbus. again, i zonked out in the car for the most part, with andy the ever faithful chauffeur. by this point, i knew that the next time i took a shower and washed my hair, it was going to be a hot mess. so, after dinner, i decided it was time. we set up shop in the foyer, where there is a full-length mirrored door, decent lighting, and a broom sweepable surface. my request for a mohawk was cause for nervousness, as andy had only ever shaved his own head, and certainly not into a mohawk. but we slowly worked up to it. the hawk itself is slightly shorter than either of us intended, but i am happy with the result. what say ye, my Cancer Land fan base? let's do this.