Okay, whose leftover cold is this?!

The days immediately after my final chemo session pretty much followed the pattern of the first three sessions. No side effects. No nausea. No problems. I didn't take any time off of work and made it a point to try and hold it to 8-hour days, not 9- or 10-hour days, with the help of the chemo police (my boss and fellow workers), who would point my way to the door if I strayed too far beyond my schedule.

Saturday I tried to sleep in a bit as we had a surprise birthday party to attend in the afternoon for my friend Linn. It was being held at her mother's house, about an hour-and-a-half away, and I was eager to go, as her family has become my second family -- and her mother welcomes me like a fourth daughter. Jeff and I had a good time, but by the early evening, I was ready for PJs and a warm blanket. My knees were killing me the whole ride home and if they hadn't been, I'd have slept during the ride.

I woke up Sunday and realized why I'd been extra tired. The cold everyone kept passing around had finally decided to stop and visit me. I was congested and coughing -- but had no fever, thank God! I stayed in my pajamas the entire day and slept a good portion of it. I planned to stay home from work on Monday to try and get as much rest as possible and shake the cold, but I remembered I had paperwork to do.

On Monday, I went in early and got done what I had to do and left after 5 hours. Came home and went right to bed and stayed there through Tuesday. By Wednesday, I was back at work, feeling better than I sounded. I was going to Florida on vacation the next week and had lots of projects to finish. The cold came at a bad time, considering all I had to do, but it would have been worse if it came the following week when I was on vacation. No one likes to be sick away from home. And having just gotten over pneumonia the week before, I wanted to make sure this cold didn't turn into something more threatening.

Just a few more days and I'd be out of the post-chemo danger zone. In the month of March, I'd had 13 days of fever, a mild infection, pneumonia and now a cold. That's about as much fun as I could pack into one cold, miserable month.