Friday started with me being surprised to wake up and actually sleep some. This is unusual, but Thursday was an exhausting day with the trip to ER and all of that. I was still feeling the chemo head, but I think it was still fatigue more than the drugs this time.
Today’s blog has a lot of extra information as I mainly did rest and think a bit.
The extreme cold sensitivity requires discipline, but it is now familiar. I did drop my pills and have some coordination issues similar to last time on day 2. It is just frustrating. My fingers are also moisturized and always clean meaning I need to be careful with pills.
I start at 6:30 to get the steroids in early. I also write a double-day blog and that takes hours to write. The chemo head and the various asides make it a more significant undertaking. It is always best to avoid having to cover multiple long days.
Aside: The chemo head is not disabling. I am just slower and have to think longer. Time goes faster for me when writing. But tasks that take an hour are now 90 minutes. But, I am coping. I am also washing hot water over cups, glasses, and silverware to avoid cold sensitivity. For those worried, the hot water heater is set lower than most folks setting as a safe setting for Susie and now me. The water is never burning hot. You can only get that really hot water from the electric teapot. I also have to admit that I hate burning the carbon in the natural gas water heater, and usually, it is set to the lower setting.
Today needs to be boring and I am feeling nausea again and taking the stronger pills as I know those will work. The infused anti-nausea was enough previously, but I am more impacted and decided it is best not to wait for when I am having dry heaves. My muscles twitch randomly, but I do not need a cane in the house.
I turn on the war and the anti-nausea pill almost puts me out. I watch Bloomberg’s somewhat unique perspective as it describes in detail the impact on the world’s finances from the war. Huge amounts of money are now hiding out in the 10-year US treasury, but with an interest rate hike coming this seems a poor place to park money to me. Bitcoin and other cryptos have sunk.
I call Sedgwick on my case, I have a text that I have exhausted something. So, I call and am forward to the same voice I have heard before, the person actually handling the case. She, I am sorry I forgot her name, lets me know that the protection of my position at Nike is over. Nike could now hire into my slot and when I return to work I will have to compete for a new position or face enjoying my 25-year over 55 exit package. It has been over 90-days now. I would prefer a return to work just to prove I could do it, but an exit at this time, while full of complexity, I could make something of it. Entering the gig economy would be very interesting, exciting, and challenging, but this would be an option. But, I suspect Nike will want me back.
Also, last week I was finally officially declared retroactively on short-term disability. My pay is now only 80% and Nike clawed back the overage this week leaving me with just over $500 for my check. In November 2021, I received a 20% market adjustment as my position was revised to align with all the architects that have been hired for huge new market-based salaries. Thus, I will just be living off of my previous pay–No biggie.
Friday is not the day for another ER trip or to experience the breathing issue that simulates dying from strangling, so I stayed away from the front door. It was 32F outside when I started.
I watched a lot of Bloomberg and then got my CoinBase account back. I had to find my old iPhone, which I held on to for just things like this. The google authenticator does not transfer the codes to a new iPhone when you build the new iPhone using the automatic transfer. I got a text from David Smith that you have this issue with each code and other apps that do the security for multi-authentication. I have only this for CoinBase and Nike access. Nike updated with just a log-on, so it was not an issue. After charging and powering up the old iPhone, I followed directions and got access back to CoinBase.
After that I saw that my account is all zeros, I had transferred out of CoinBase after their leadership made many unflattering comments about the Black-Lives-Matter issues. I also did not think that crypto was worth the investment due to its asset class that requires realizing a loss/gain on every movement. And, while some were going up, I was invested in five or six different ones, some were crashing suggesting that crypto was not for me as the reasons for the ups and downs were opaque to me. So I made a few hundred bucks on a few thousand, transferred the cash back to my checking, and used the few hundred for bling for a newish board game. A less opaque investment in fun.
I am tempted to invest as all the crypto is low, but I still see it as an opaque market. Crypto, by nature, hides the market forces currently driving its pricing, and mere mortals have to use CoinBase and other risky wallet solutions to be in the market. Many folks have lost their investments to hacks not from crypto but from wallets. But CoinBase, while not a victim of hacking thieves and is locally coded in Portland by brilliant people, leadership gives me pause. So I am not stepping back in and I will make no financial decisions while my brain is so stuffed with chemo and steroids.
I also ordered, thank Michelle Vondenkamp and others from SEC, for lunch delivered from GrubHub. I did not want to invest any strength in making lunch. I ordered from Oasis and got their soup like lamb stew with spiced rice. This is hot and was perfect for the cold sensitivity. Warm food and drinking hot water keep the ER away!
Dondrea calls me and I get to FaceTime with Susie at the Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center at 3900 Pacific Highway, Room 44A. Susie is very happy to see me and to hear that I am safe and home. Dondrea reports that is Susie is much better. I give Dondrea Leta’s mobile and they too use FaceTime. Leta
I discovered putting my head back and sleeping in the chair trips the chocking and strangling even with the heat at 72F in the house. I do not fall asleep like that again! I took the second anti-nausea and the 10AM chemo pills and that crushed me to sleep. Corwin returning to work, woke me at 3:15ish, head on my chest.
Christine Moay brought over dinner, baked chicken, and soup with bread. Corwin warmed all up in the oven and heats the soup. It was good and I did eat while watching the BBC news on PBS. The Newshour repeated the same news so I stopped there.
I go to read and fall asleep again from all the find drugs and the fatigue of yesterday. I missed Leta’s calls as I forgot the phone. I call her and she is still up as she watched MSU win an unexpected slot in March-Madness basketball. Leta loves basketballl. I catch her up when I call her back.
I watched two more episodes of the show Upload and found the show starting to work for me. The characters are now more sympathetic and the actors, while good the whole time, are now showing more likable characteristics than self-focused jerks. So, if you can make it to episode four, it works I think. The irony the show is focusing on is that the characters are becoming more human as they are exposed to the de-human process of Upload.
I am back to the Kindle and reading Americana. As it marches through time, I have noticed no mention of the Black Experiences. The Women’s Temperance Union, my mother-in-law Leta is still a member, does get some good coverage. There is mention that the slaves are free but now are downtrodden by being sharecroppers. The failure of reconstruction is ignored so far. I am hopeful that the author will soon focus on those experiences soon after the usual super focus on the Gilded Age leaders I find in texts covering this time in the USA.
I read and finally fall asleep around 1ish. I have to take my inhaler as I want no breathing issues. I am surprised to wake on Saturday at 6:15AM. I usually am up all night.
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