Relishing small triumphs

I don't think I have mentioned just how pleasant it has been for the last couple of weeks to take a shower without having to cover some significant part of my body to prevent it getting wet. I came home from Cedars the first time with a PICC line in my arm for the IVs I was taking every day, so I had to put a giant plastic sleeve over the arm and tape the top when I took a shower. The PICC line stayed in until a couple of weeks after the operation. Then I had an open wound in my belly, and we didn't want to get soap in it (although after a while I rinsed it with clear water after all the soap was rinsed off). Since we stopped packing the wound, however (maybe jumped the gun by a couple of days, but no serious problems), I've been able to take showers without swathes of plastic over various portions of my body. It has been wonderful! Sometimes you don't realize how much you enjoy a privilege until you can't do it.

In general, my health is pretty good. This is the "off" week for chemotherapy and then after a bit of a wait we start radiation combined with a different chemo. Next week we see Dr. Saegal for chemo consultation, then Dr. Nissen for what will probably be a final post-op check-up, and then the radiation doctor on Fiday to work out how we're going to approach the radiation. Little by little, we're getting there.