....w h i s p e r....

I'll avoid the whining that goes with this voice thing. Suffice it to say that improvement is slow, sporadic, and inconsistent. Drives me nuts at work, where people are accustomed to hearing me laugh, ask dumb questions, challenge their answers...and give answers to others. It has been about six weeks now, they tell me it could be another two months of this stuff. If I could kick the cough, I might notice marked improvement, because I feel like I have two things going on...the cough/breathing and the larynx.

Anyway, Monday was the first day of the new regimen. I'll be in for a substantial period, normally five or six hours, every three weeks....when I take two of the chemotherapy cocktails. On the intervening weeks, I'll only be there 90 minutes, absorbing just one of them. The good news is that I feel incredibly better on "day three" this go 'round than I did on the others, and will continue to be better through the week. The bad news is that I get to do it weekly, rather than alternate. I'm going to try and work most of the day on the Mondays, go in for the infusions, and then rest on Tuesday and part of Weds...to see how that will work.

For awhile I thought that this was going to be a six week regimen, but Dr. Chang suggests I should be prepared to go through June, at least. I'll likely lose my hair--why not, I'd rather have a voice than hair--and he warned me that I might get nauseous. That has not happened, thank goodness. I'm also likely to get pimply again, like November, just not as badly. I'll keep you posted on that front. At least I'll get that really smooth skin out of the deal.

The office is holding together without me quite well. Got my new business cards for the promotion, which is fun, and people have tons of questions when I get there. I miss the social interactions that go with phone calls, and the interesting questions I get from doctors when I'm in the office more. We have some significant targets, but the busy time of the year is not yet upon us, let's hope that I get better when we really need me to.

I hope your April is off to a bang...let's remember to sing Happy Birthday to Nate on the 11th...!