and the Bleo goes to...Peter Spencer!

Bleomycin is the primary cancer fighting drug I received this week.  The nurses refer to it as "Bleo".  That has a friendly sound--like an award one might receive rather than the nickname for a dangerous chemical agent.  Bleomycin is a fierce killer of cancer invaders.  Unfortunately, it kills with reckless abandon and many of the innocent cells in my body suffer the same fate as the cancer cells.  My mouth is often the most bothersome.  It feels like it's coated with aluminum flavored Pepto Bismo.

The blood clot in my right arm continues to be very painful.  Normally, I tend to avoid pain pills, but I'm forced to take Vicodin now.  It was very disappointing to learn the blood clot may take up to six months to resolve.  It seems cruel to get a blood clot on top of chemotherapy.  I read that only 1-2 percent of chemo patients develop clots, but that didn't make me feel much better.  C'est la vie!

While not getting out much these days, I look for beauty in small things.  The other night I took these pictures of tulip shadows while sitting at our dinner table.  The tulips are beautiful, to be sure, but the shadows are beautiful in quite another way.  My life feels a little like a shadow land these days; like Peter is somewhere else and only a shadow remains.  I know I will blossom and glow again like the bright tulips that made these wistful shadows.

For those who are following the food descriptors of my tumor, it is now the size of a small bean.  Yes, the dreaded chemicals have nearly erased the cancer in my body.  Two more weeks of chemotherapy and then a CT scan on April 8th to confirm that the cancer is gone.