Re: Funky Winkerbean 8/20

However, I've had a question all week -- is it logical for someone
who's been through chemo (and is still taking some kind of shots, as
we've seen) to be so hyper-energetic? I mean, a little hike and a
donkey ride I could certainly understand, but this level of activity
really strains my notion of what it's like to be undergoing
chemotherapy. Do people really bounce back like this?

I share your skepticism. In my modest experience and research, chemo pretty
much kicks your ass to one degree or another, even after it's done. She'd be
much more likely to spend her days on a couch under a comfy blanket than
racing up and down the cliffs of the desert Southwest. But there are many
different kinds of chemo designed to target different types of cancer and I
can't speak to all their side effects. Some are mild enough to leave your
hair intact (not Lisa's, apparently) and continue a pretty normal routine.
However, I can't imagine an oncologist agreeing to a vacation so far from
home during or soon after chemo; they'd want to be watching for side
effects, adjusting medications, getting regular bloodwork, preventing
infections...all kinds of stuff that hard to do in an unfamiliar environment
a thousand miles away.

I don't know what was in that shot on Aug. 17. I'm not familiar with chemo
being delivered in any fashion other than via I.V. in a clinic over a few
hours. I wonder if it's a steroid like prednisone, which would be used as an
anti-inflammatory and (again in my observation) can induce an energetic,
euphoric high. Maybe that's where Lisa's gusto is coming from.

Or maybe Lisa is terminal, this vacation is a to-hell-with-it final fling,
the shots are morphine and speed that keeps her going, and Batiuk just
hasn't gotten around to telling us yet.

Sedona is nice.

Brian F.
momscancer.com




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