Lots of little things that were blog worthy have happened this week where I didn’t feel I could write an engaging blog post for if they were all separate.

I’ve been getting a lot of cards from people which makes me really happy, it’s super great to be able to wake up and see them on the wall when I first wake up and put on my glasses. One gift that made me particularly laugh out loud was a tshirt that my cousin Jeff sent me.

I don’t think I can wear this in public because people are going to think “He must really hate that guy Derek!” I would happily wear this if we were to do a party or get together when I’m cancer free.

I shaved my head about 3 1/2 weeks ago and nothing’s grown so far. My scalp has been really itchy the last few days and someone noticed that I have a ton of little red bumps on my head. It’s definitely not razor burn because I haven’t shaved my head since I’m just letting the little hairs fall out on their own. No idea what may have caused it. Maybe it’s a rash from something dirty that I put my head on but man…it itches like crazy.

I’m still sneaking food. The other day I made myself a small charcuterie platter. I was craving this Irish cheese that a friend of mine introduced me to. If you haven’t had it, check out Dubliner cheese from Kerrygold. You can buy it at Target. It’s somewhat similar to parmesan cheese but softer texture and the flavor is sweet and nutty.

So I had a craving for this cheese, can’t have fancy cheese without pairing it with fancy meat right? We went back to the grocery store and I snuck a package of prosciutto through checkout. Again, I can’t have cured meats because they’re not cooked. I washed the grapes a few times but I can’t have fruit where you eat the skin. I ate this a few days ago and I didn’t get sick so whatever. I’m happy to eat anything that’s not bone broth soup.

Went back to Mayo on Tuesday to do my booster shot of bleomycin. We bring my brother Jonathan along because he’s got his driver’s permit and we give him the opportunity to practice before he needs to take his test but the guy would rather sleep in the car…teenagers

I had my PICC Line redressing at 12, blood test at 2, and then booster shot after the blood test results came back. The weird thing was that at all three appointments, they had a hard time getting blood return from the PICC Line. The nurses had to flush the line a bunch of times with saline solution, told me to waive my arms around, stand up, and lay down to try to get blood out. My body was being weird and stubborn I guess. Hopefully this won’t be a recurring problem where I’ll need to redo the PICC line like I did with the IVs.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that my dad’s making me read the New Testament. Almost every morning we’ll sit down and read a full book which takes like 20 minutes. So far, we’ve done Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians and Timothy. All I can say is that Paul is kind of long winded when he starts his intros and would have saved himself a lot of time if he could copy and paste his letters via email to send to these people.

I have noticed that since my life isn’t in crisis mode as it was at the very beginning of my journey, I’ve been less in tune with listening for God in the day to day stuff. I think because I’ve adjusted to this new “normal” life and things aren’t so scary and life-threatening anymore. I think my dad knew this and that’s why he’s been making me read the Bible to stick with it. It’s not a necessarily “fun” way to spend part of my morning, but I can see the benefits.

The last week and a half I’ve been feeling fine. My energy levels are normal and I’m not fatigued or nauseous at all. It’s kind of frustrating when you’re physically doing well but you can’t go out and do the stuff you want to do. I wish I could go for a bike ride or go to the gym. I would even go shoe shopping with Joanna, that’s how desperate I am to get out.

Dad was merciful yesterday and let me go to my house and see Speedy for the first time in a month and a half. When we got there, he was super excited to see my dad but very cautious around me. It didn’t help that I had my hat and mask on, I know I smell different because of the chemo too. We took him on a walk and he seemed to be happy.

We dropped him back off at the house after the walk and he didn’t seem too concerned that I was leaving. I think he was just really confused and still figuring out who I was. Later that night, Joanna texted me saying that he seemed really sad and was moping around the house with his tail between his legs, not being his normal energetic speedy self. I feel bad, but what can I do?

Dad had his meeting with his doctor on Monday. For those that are new-ish to my blog, he’s got stage 2 prostate cancer and was diagnosed with it like a week before I found out I was sick. The current treatment plan is that he’ll get a hormone injection this coming Monday while I’m at Mayo as well for chemo. The hormone injection is meant to shrink his prostate and hopefully the tumor as well.

He’ll also be taking medication for the next 3 months prior to getting radiation therapy in December. The type of radiation he’ll be getting is called Photon Pencil Beam Therapy. There’s only 26 institutions in the country that do it because the machinery that does it takes up an entire building and the radiation beam has to travel the length of a football field before it gets to you.

The reason why he elected that method than traditional radiation therapy is because it’s more exact on where it affects the body.

His side effects with the hormone therapy really suck though. He was joking that he would take my bald head and fatigue over what he’s going to be expecting which is: severe mood swings, short term memory loss, bone pain for at least 30 days, fatigue, loss of appetite, some hair loss.

I’m not sure how long the radiation therapy will be, I think 2 months? I’ll keep people updated on the blog how he’s doing though as he goes through his treatment.