Still Trying


Ten days have passed since I blogged about trying to get off of Oxycontin.  Unfortunately, I�m still working on getting off of it.  My doctor continues to make suggestions and encourages me to wean slowly...very slowly.  It takes patience, which I don�t have much of. 

This past weekend my dear friend, Brigid, and I went to Austin, TX.  I was really feeling the need to get away and have never been to TX.  Since my diagnosis in December, I�ve hardly been out of my suburb.  Austin has a great music scene and inexpensive, good food.  The most appealing part of Austin was the warm sun.  The Chicagoland area has had a cold, wet spring.  I usually don�t complain about the weather much, but having cancer and going through bouts of withdrawal are leaving me chilled to the bone.  It was in the high 80�s and a little humid in Austin, which felt amazingly good.  We sunned, pool-side, walked along the Colorado River, and relaxed.  The flight down to TX was challenging.  I got sick a few times and am so grateful that Brigid was with me.  She�s a real trooper and a great friend.  Once there, everything else went smoothly, including the flight home.  Wynn and I are planning a week vacation soon and this quick getaway gave me the confidence that I can actually travel and nothing bad will happen.   



My next CT scans are scheduled for the first week of May.  These are the scans that will let my doctors and me know if the oral chemotherapy I�ve been taking for the last 6 weeks is working, or not.  I was so nervous about my first set of scans, which told us that the chemotherapies I was initially on weren�t working.  You can imagine how nervous I am about this next set.


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