Today Wasn’t Much Fun

There, I admitted it. My butt got kicked today. Royally! And I don’t know why.

Let’s talk muscles; specifically, in my case, voluntary muscles. “Voluntary muscle contraction is used to move the body, and can be finely controlled, like movements of the eye, or gross movements like the quadriceps muscle of the thigh. There are two broad types of voluntary muscle fibers, slow twitch and fast twitch. Slow twitch fibers contract for long periods of time but with little force while fast twitch fibers contract quickly and powerfully but fatigue very rapidly.”

Now thigh muscles are also called skeletal muscles, and are controlled through voluntary muscle contractions. When I get tired, when my butt gets kicked, as I say, the muscles “fatigue very rapidly.” I got tired just standing in the shower this AM. My thigh muscles just start shaking from the exertion of standing. So, I’m assuming that my fast twitch fibers are the ones doing the fatiguing. I just don’t know why.

At the same time, I start to breathe heavy, like I’m running out of oxygen.

Now, the chemo causes peripheral neuropathy; my nerves die in my extremities. That’s why my feet feel like they’re freezing all the time, even when I lying in a hot tub of water with sweat breaking out all over my head. It just feels like my feet are cold. But chemo can also affect the neuromuscular junction, where the nerve attaches to the muscle as well. And that causes me some worry. Assuming that I survive the cancer, I may just end up disabled by the neuropathy.

Now, the VLCC did my blood tests today and it looks like they did everything but what I went in for: to test my rat poison levels. But the results look good. Yes, some of my results are not normal for “normal” folks, but are acceptable levels for someone going through what I’m going through.

I did notice that I bled quite a bit from the antecubital venipuncture just like when I had a high INR.

I am slightly anemic, but the chemo and the IP-6 can account for that. And it’s not enough to make that big of a difference. When I was in the hospital a month ago with similar symptoms, they had me up walking the halls watching my blood oxygen levels. Although I was huffing and puffing, my O2 never went below 98%. So it would seem that something else is going on.

Now, my biology courses are decades behind me in the past. I don’t know what is going on, and if the doctors and nurses can’t figure it out, how can I? Actually, I shouldn’t say that, but more on that at a later date.

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I didn’t get to see my radiation oncologist today, but another doctor standing in for him. And he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, answer my questions. What are you gonna do? They still expect payment whether they answer questions or not.

So, I guess I’ll have to wait until Monday to see if the chemo doctor I see then will have any answers.

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I have a mystery on my hands. Someone dropped off a book, Reservation Road, a plate from the Oneida Casino, and some dried peanuts. Left ‘em in between the doors in the back.

Now, I’m not one to eat foods that I don’t know where they came from. And the book still had the price sticker on, but there was no clue where it was purchased, although I will read that. I’ve heard good things about the movie—I like Mr. Ruffalo and Ms. Connelly—and wanted to see the movie. So I’ll read the book first.

But it still presents a mystery that needs solving, although I suspect I know who dropped the stuff off.

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And I didn’t get to my taxes today. My brain just isn’t functioning THAT good. I’d hate to tell you how long it took me just to type all this up. Let’s just say that I’m not at my best today and let it go at that.

Kunolunkwa, y te quiero!

"As a juror, I will exercise my 1000-year-old duty to arrive at a verdict, not just on the basis of the facts of a particular case, or instructions I am given, but through my power to reason, my knowledge of the Bill of Rights, and my individual conscience. When needful, I will judge the law itself." -L. Neil Smith