Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The Shaman after Chemo Camp

I knew I got off relatively easy last time and that Chemo gradually wears you down.

I spent Saturday in the recliner mostly snoozing. I'd been feeling rather poisoned all day. It's an odd feeling; I don't have the vocabulary for it. Finally, about 1600, it started morphing into honest nausea. I dumped down another anti-nausea pill, and got some relief.

I still had the Neulesta thingus on my arm. It hadn't delivered its dose. They glue this thing on your arm the last day of Chemo. 27 hours later, it is supposed to inject you with a drug that puts your bone marrow into high gear. It was going on 2 hours past-due when I went to bed. It finally must have fired off after I went to sleep.

Last night was a hot steaming pile of it. I was fine until I had to get up to pee. That was an adventure. It felt like the floor was heaving. As long as I kept my head on the pillow, life was fairly good.

0400 arrived and I managed to get to the kitchen, brew a cup, and make it back to the office.

Welcome to the first day of the rest of your weekend.....
Seriously I hope that you are feeling bit better..
Best regards.

I continue to pray that this works for you bud.

I pray that you continue to improve physically - your spirit is already self-actualized by letting us glimpse into some of reality that you are going through. Sharing this would be hard for many people. Thanks for letting us into a very personal part of your life.

GET WELL SOON!

Hope you recover quickly.
Praying for you.

This is something that many have given serious thought to.
It's good news to anyone regardless of their health.

May our Lord give you strength good friend.

Hang in there Shaman, you have the right mindset.

You end up gauging things in strange ways.

Yesterday, I had to drag a kitchen chair over to brew my coffee, because the floor was heaving.

This AM, I only had to hold onto the cabinets.

I think I've turned the corner.

Keep fighting Shaman

We're pulling for Sir,
Thanks for the updates.

MY Prayers are with you
Hank

Well Shaman, you have week 2 in the books and you are still walking and talking. A lot to be said for that.

The rubber legs syndrome is starting to show and maybe a walker with a seat is in order.

Take it easy and eat well you will need your strength going forward.

More Prayers for you kind sir.

Prayers for a complete recovery for you.

Keep fighting Shaman!

Prayers continued

First off, I seem to have gotten past the worst of the poisoning effects.

I awoke before 0300 this AM. That is usually a sure sign that my body is tired of resting and wants to get moving. That has been sorrowfully lacking for the past week or so.

The balance issues were mostly due to the anti-nausea drug. I was able to lay off that as the day wore on yesterday. I'm still weak, but at least the floor is not heaving.

What I find interesting is what my head is doing in all this. The biggest problem, once I get past a certain point of recovery, is that boredom sets in. Boredom is a good sign; it means I'm healthy enough that my head wants stimulation, and watching Youtubes all day is no longer cutting it. However, when you mix boredom with anti-nausea pills, the results are somewhat odd.

Yesterday, I became a bit obsessed with solving a deer rifle conundrum that I really had settled intellectually 20 years ago. It's a long story, but I became fascinated with the utility of 44-somethings for short-range deer hunting. It took quite a bit of research and some trial and error for me to figure out that 30-somethings and 35-somethings were getting the job I wanted done better with less recoil. The whole issue came up again a few years ago, when I inherited my buddy's Model 44 Carbine. Yes, it did a nice job on a deer. However, I realized that, as I matured, I had fallen into the smaller/faster camp and away from the heavy/slow side of the spectrum.

However, in the semi-dreamlike state I've been in for 5 days, that all became very real again, and yesterday I had Ken Watters, P.O. Ackley, John Barsness, et all scattered about me, and I was furiously going through Gunbroker entries looking for just the right 44-something.

Once I had that dead horse thoroughly whipped, I then embarked on an equally futile internet search for my most recent obsession, 7mm-08. I have no idea why, but I had to reconvince myself that a 139 grain Hornady IL SP was the right bullet.

Oh, and before y'all start trying to argue the point (please don't), I'm back to where I was: a nice 308 WIN, 7mm-08, or 300 Savage does as good or better than a 44 Mag or 444 Marlin inside 100 yards with a lot less muss and fuss, and gives you the bonus of being able to reach out further should the need arise. Furthermore, if you want to start arguing the whole fast/slow thing, remember that before I started chemo, I was working on getting my new Brown Bess (.75 cal) ready for fall.

BTW: I scored a cheap ball mill on EBAY yesterday. That was the last big piece in my make-your-own black powder project. I'm salting away all the fixins for what real men dream of when they hear "renewable energy."


Today, I venture back to the hospital for more tests and a carboy of saline. They want to give my kidneys some help flushing the poison out and also see what became of my blood. I doubt they're going to find any.

Best wishes, and prayers sent (yet again).
Best wishes and prayers also, for kyhillchick - it's tough to be the caregiver in these situations.
Give her our best, please.

Prayer sent, and wishes for a full and speedy recovery of your health.

Shamon, I can't begin to imagine what you're going through.

I missed a bullet; I had a nasty looking mole behind my ear my doctor spotted that benign unless it turns worse.

More Prayers for you, and your wife.