November 12, 2008 9:10 PM

Boy, I never thought that I would get the opportunity to write today’s entry. For most of the day, my energy level was about zero. Obviously the chemo plays a big part in that; but it doesn’t help when you visit the bathroom every ½ hour either. Another major issue is that every night from about 4 to 7, the heating system goes into Amazon jungle mode and the temperature must be 85 degrees in here. It is so stifling that you cannot breathe, your clothing gets soaked and so does the bed linens. And there is nothing you can do about it! There is no reliable way to adjust the heat in the room. I think that I am going to have to ask 1 of the nurses to come in and fan me!

I feel better now because later in the day they have started to load me up with so much stuff to make up for the effect of the chemo. All day long when my wife was here, I was a dishrag. Now that she had to leave and go home, I feel a lot better.

My sister came by today to have her blood taken to see if she is a viable bone marrow donor candidate. As I said before it’s only a 1 in 4 shot but you have to try. She says that if she is the donor that I will owe her “big time”. Well I can see that she has neglected to take into account all of the wonderful things that I did for (to) her when we were growing up! I think that if she really puts it all in perspective she will come around to my way of thinking and see that this should just about draw us even!

While I was shaving this morning, the nurse came in and almost had a heart attack! No one told me that I was not allowed to shave! Having little or no white blood cells means that any cut has much less of a chance to heal. So now I will be growing a mustache and a beard. Come to find out, according to one of the nurses, you really have no idea what hair you will lose. Men do not always lose their facial hair – including eyebrows and eyelashes. We’ll see what happens in my case. As an aside, my wife wants me to lose the hair in my ears!

Big event later tonight – the chemo ends!!!!! It’s been 7 days – time flies when you’re having fun! It really has been uneventful – thank God. I wrestled with a little nausea 3 or 4 times but it was fleeting and it did not go beyond that. So a week of waiting now begins in preparation for the bone marrow biopsy next week.

In short, right now I am feeling fine and everything is still on track.

Bob