A new scarf look for a new day.

It’s Easter Sunday. The breeze is gentle, the sun is soft, the house is quiet.

I had chemo on Tuesday.  Had neuprogen injections Wednesday-Saturday.  My muscle/bone discomfort started earlier and lasted longer.  Now it’s Sunday and the discomfort has ebbed.  I am relieved, it’s been hard.  I doped myself up and twitched my legs and stretched and walked.  It was only five days.  But hell’s bells: it was only three days last time!  (I am allowed to whine.)

As a result of my treatments, I realize I know nothing about chronic pain.  I’ve been one of the lucky ones. I’ve broken a few bones, and I’ve been through a couple of six week recoveries from surgery. But those are one-day-at-a-time-and-soon-you’ll-feel-better jaunts. Oh, and of course, there were two trips of nine months of pregnancy (and post-partum blobbiness).  But for that, two babies were there.

An old friend that I hadn’t really seen in a long time (decades, it seemed once we spent an evening together) came by for a visit on Tuesday. She told me that 10 years ago – as a young mother – she was diagnosed with MS.  She told me that she chose to put herself through interferon shots every Friday for six years.  She said it was like six years of weekly chemo.  My God. Read More →