And on Sunday I arose from the dead

If the napping saga of Saturday was restitution for my overdoing it on Friday, Sunday was my day of reawakening. I felt good when I got up that morning. Arose early; made breakfast; read the paper; got ready for church -- and didn't need a nap in between any of those activities. The zombie had stolen away in the night and I was back!

I had made it through my first chemo weekend with little damage to show for it. Just an occasional tingling in the lips. No mouth sores. No nausea. Even though I normally register on the reptile side of the dry skin vs oily skin scale, I hadn't noticed any further sloughing than normal. My hands and feet have been known to actually peel from dry skin or nerves, or a combination of both. It would be interesting to see what developed there depending on whether or not chemo decided to aggravate or help that condition.

The music in church that morning was particularly inspirational to me and did what it sometimes does...made my eyes water. Whether that was a "Wow, I really do have cancer and just had my first chemo experience" moment, or just a religious experience, I don't know. Perhaps it was a Sunday combo. But the music and singing moved me, and I was grateful for it.

Jeff and I decided to have a nice late lunch/early dinner to celebrate his return from Arizona and my tolerating my first chemo treatment so well. We took a short drive up to Wisconsin to dine. Somewhere between the salad and the third bite of filet mignon, I had a bout of take-my-breath-away heartburn. I'd forgotten about that warning. Chris, my chemo administrator, had mentioned that some people complain of heartburn.

Complain might be too mild of a word. I had the waitress package my meal and we headed for the nearest drugstore. Fortunately, since Walgreen's corporate philosophy is to plant a store every quarter mile down the road, we only had to go one block to find one. Jeff ran inside and bought a large bottle of TUMS. I chowed down three and they were pretty effective, pretty quickly. I've carried them in my purse ever since.

Later, I realized that the baked sweet potato I had chosen to accompany my steak was probably not a good choice. I love both sweet potatoes and edamame, but they are both major sources of estrogen, and I suspect that is something I need to avoid. I must make a mental note to ask my oncologist about that.

I also drank a grapefruit Izze drink and then later read that grapefruit juice can interfere with the effectiveness of chemo drugs. Really? Who knew there were so many nutritional rules to this process. Perhaps meeting with a nutritionist would be a smart decision.

There are a lot of support meetings and services available to cancer patients and I hadn't taken advantage of any of them. Between working, medical testing, doctor appointments, treatment and just plain R&R, I hadn't found the time. Perhaps I needed to make the time. I also needed to figure out how to factor daily work-outs back into my routine. I knew there'd be serious payback for letting that slide too long.

Well, the solution was easy. I just needed to find longer days.