Rest. It Does a Body Good.

Resting. I need to do more of it while I'm on Abraxane. I had a treatment on Friday, I rested that night, but couldn't get to sleep until about midnight. I slept until about 7:30am on Saturday and then participated in the Psycho-Emotional Repatterning workshop all day.

The workshop was really informative and I enjoyed meeting the other participants. I learned more about Chinese medicine and the philosophy behind it. It was also brought together a lot of things that I have been learning. So, it was cool.

I took it easy Saturday evening and night. Mom and dad rented a movie called "My Name is Khan", which was interesting because the main character had Asperger's Syndrome. It was also a movie about intolerance towards Muslims in post 9/11 America. I enjoyed it.

I slept in until about 8am on Sunday, then relaxed and worked on the grant proposal for awhile, then ran errands, picked up Eddie, found some material for a new jacket kuspuk for me, and had coffee with a friend. Then, after dinner, I had to work on the grant proposal. We already had an extension and it was due today. So, I was up until after 11pm. I didn't finish the grant proposal, so I decided to ask my program officer for yet another extension.

I had to get up about 6:30am. Went to work. Left a message for my program officer and emailed her. But in the meantime, I had so much to do - I needed to grade papers (put that off until later this week), I needed to upload grades into Blackboard, I need to do IRB paperwork, I needed to prepare for class, I got an email about having to make minor changes to a supplemental request, and then I agreed to be interviewed by a student via skype. I quickly became overwhelmed today.

I also felt really fatigued and it occurred to me sometime this morning that I was feeling so tired, not just because I was up late, because my fatigue was more than just not enough sleep. I'm feeling this fatigued because of the chemo. Abraxane causes anemia.

I finally managed to prioritize what I could get done this morning and I decided to ask a couple of people to help out on some of the tasks I needed to do. And, then, an angel in the form of my program officer emailed me and told me that we could have a little more time before I needed to submit the proposal.

A lot of weight lifted off my shoulders.

So, even though I feel fairly good under this chemotherapy regimen, I was reminded today that I do get fatigued.

I had been operating like the Abraxane was no big deal since my mood is good and I'm getting such good results.

But it does affect my blood counts. I need to remember that and to take time to rest.

Which is all to say that I am still not able to do as much as work as I might want to.

Rest. It does a body good.