[cancer] Shedding day has passed, and I have written

Wow is infusion cycle four different from the first three. As previously discussed, I had a pretty good few days leading into last weekend's chemotherapy infusion session. In many ways, it was also the easiest infusion session so far. I came out of it less confused and less physically stressed. I ascribe this to a combination of better control of my ongoing lower GI disruption prior to the session, and better sleep overall.

Yesterday was shedding day. That's the point somewhere two to five days after the infusion where my stomach lining gives up and heads for the exits. In prior cycles, this has been a profoundly disruptive event. This time it was bearable. I believe this is again due to relatively solid sleep, plus a more careful management of my diet. As mentioned, I've been trending more on the BRAT diet, which I think handed my GI less stress to deal with while it gave up the biweekly ghost yesterday.

Even better, for the second time this week I woke up a little before 4 am today with Right Brain saying, "write, write." So I did, an hour's worth of revisions on Endurance. As I am having lunch and likely spending my post-Day Jobbe afternoon with some combination of markbourne, garyomaha and elusivem, all of whom are visiting from out of state, this was an excellent use of time. Writing early (which was never really my habit much) also leverages the fact that my mental energy on chemo is very best between waking and noon or 1 pm. I've been writing around 3 or 4 pm most days, which has been a stretch.

So I'm calling this two major wins. One: shedding day not being overwhelmingly bad for me, and may I be this lucky in the future. Two: Right Brain finding ways to cope with chemo so my writing can proceed no matter what.

Ah, cancer.