Day Three

My sweet wife suggested that I munch on crushed ice to help fight off the nausea. So I equipped myself for the battle by exercising in a rocker in my room at about 11 pm to get myself really tired. I got a cup of ice ready, and located a half bag of baked potato chips and placed it handy. Up to a point, it worked. I slept for the hour during the infusion of the gunk that makes me sick, then woke up and started eating the ice and the potato chips. The nausea was under control enough that I did not need medication to fight it off. That was great.

But the downside is that an new enemy attacked. With increasing vigor, my muscles started aching like the worst case of the flu I have ever had. I tried exercising and it helped, but that can only last so long because I get tired. I watched an old Cary Grant black-and-white movie to keep my mind active. But still no sleep. About 3 am, I asked for a pain pill and was told they were not permitted to give me one after 2 am. Bummer. So I made it through the night with fitful sleep. When Be came, I was feeling horrible. She rubbed my back and my legs and it felt so good. She also insisted that I order some breakfast even though I was not hungry at all. Where does she get this wisdom? I ate some breakfast at about 11 am, and felt some better for a while. In the afternoon I tried watching the Memorial Golf Tournament, and I slept off and on the rest of the afternoon. Sometime during this ordeal I asked for a pain pill, and it helped. Tonight I am feeling pretty good --watching the Lakers destroy the Magic and reading e-mail and Facebook.

I had a surprise visitor this morning -- Brent Isbell. The story behind this is that Brent is the pulpit minister for the Bering Drive Church of Christ here in Houston, and we at the University Church of Christ have just hired him to be our new pulpit minister. He said he has been getting a ton of e-mail from UCC members telling him that I was down here. I was really glad to meet him, and I like him a lot, even though have only briefly met.

Tonight I plan to have the ice and potato chips handy, and I plan to exercise until I am tired. But I have also requested two pain pills to help me sleep. The doctor says that I am doing great. When I complained about the insomnia and nausea, he said that it was from the chemo. When I complained about the flu-like symptoms, he said that it was the chemo. Tomorrow I plan to complain about little green men at the foot of my bed and see if that is the result of chemo. Of course there are no little green men (those come from the DT's), but I hope to make him laugh.

I love you all. God is good.

PS. Be donated platelets today to help M. D. Anderson Hospital. It took more than three hours of her time. Isn't she a sweetheart? I am immeasurably blessed.