March 6, 2009 11:20 PM 83 days to go

The countdown continues for me. But today it ended for the coworker that I told you last week had only a week to live. It is rather ironic that he has passed away the day before we turn the clocks ahead. For all the years that I knew him, he hated turning the clock ahead because he always felt that we lost that hour and we never got it back. We had many discussions about this. And, even though we turn the clocks back in the fall to get the hour back, he could never bring himself to the point of accepting that all it evened out in the end.

My condolences and prayers go out to his wife and son. He was a quiet man - but a good man and a good worker. He will be missed by all who knew him. I know that he was suffering and in great pain near the end. Bruce, may you now rest in peace.

This is one of the most frustrating parts of my recovery period. I cannot go out to directly pay my respects to him and to offer my sympathies to his family.

As for me, it was another quiet day and I still feel fine. It now seems that more people are beginning to question whether or not I am really ill. All I can say is that I've gone through an awful lot of treatment to pull off this sham. What I have gained by undergoing all of this, I have yet to determine.

In fact, there are a few other small side effects that I have to contend with during this recovery period. As my close friends know(I do have some!), I have never really been a coffee lover. But, I always craved that first, and usually for me the only one of the day, cup of coffee in the morning. That craving has now completely gone away and I really have no desire for coffee at all. I had a cup or 2 when we would go out for breakfast just before my last hospital stay. But I have not had any since I went in on February 11th. This is a direct byproduct of the chemotherapy as I know that others have lost their taste for coffee as well.

One other side effect that I currently have is that all day long I have a taste in my mouth that I cannot get rid of. It's not like losing your sense of taste due to the chemotherapy because it does not affect my appetite or the taste of the food that I am eating. I think that it is caused by all the medications that I am taking and, hopefully, it will go away as I gradually wean myself off of them. I say this because I do not remember having this taste after each of the 2 rounds of chemo that I went through. There does not seem to be any way of ridding myself of this as, no matter what I eat or what I try to cleanse my mouth with, the taste always comes back. It's not overly unpleasant, but it is definitely there.

I also had a New York friend call today to touch base and start to make plans for them to come up and visit after the 100 days are over. Looking forward to these type of things is what's going to fuel my drive back to full health once again.

So that's all that I have to comment on for today...

Bob