Day 94, Into The Storm

Today is the day I’ve worried about for some time: A snow storm while in the middle of the side effects storm that follows a chemo treatment.  But it’s also the day I’ve discovered the first superhero power brought forth by my treatment: sheer stubbornness.  My runner friends will recognize this as the ability to ignore the body’s protestations and keep going.

Let me whine about chemo for a few paragraphs, as my previous post didn’t capture the full extent of the experience.  For starters, I forgot all about chemo brain, which ironically is itself probably a symptom of chemo brain..  It’s simply difficult to think straight sometimes.  Chemo attacks the nerve cells, as evidenced by the tingingling in my fingers and toes.  If it’s attacking the peripheral nerves, it’s probably having an effect on the brain cells too.

Combine chemo brain with a lack of testosterone caused by hormone treatment, sprinkle in a bit of prednisone, and you get a tendency towards moody and anxious.  Add in the vague sense of physical malaise and it exacerbates the problem. 

My throat hurts. My hair continues to thin.  My skin is extremely dry. My toenails hurt.  A small portion of patients have been known to lose their nails, but based on an unscientific sampling, it’s not any more frequent than happens to marathon runners. 

What’s missing from all this whining is complaints of serious muscle or bone pain, or a tendency to sleep all day.  Other than a bit of anemia which limits my power levels, I’m actually pretty capable of some physical activity.

Which brings me to the snow storm raging outside.  The scene opens with a close up of the rope starter on a small engine.  A hand pulls the rope and the engine sputters to life.  The camera moves back and reveals a snow thrower.  The hero is going out into the storm and cleaning up the snow!

Shouting the battle cry “USE IT OR LOSE IT!”, he wields his trusty snow thrower against the evil forces of mother nature.

But while the power equipment can deal with the bulk of the snow, at some point you need to break out a shovel to do the detail work:

Ultimately this epic battle ended in a draw of sorts.  The snow has changed to that awful mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain.  While i did get the driveway mostly clear, it didn’t leave me with the “I could do this all day” feeling and the cars still need to be dug out after the storm ends.  My bowels are definitely irritated, though I suspect they’d be largely that way without the physical effort.

All this leaves me with some significant unanswered questions:  Is “Stubborn Man” a good superhero name?  Or should I wait until more powers become apparent?  I’m still working on my dark humor superpower.  What costume does a stubborn man wear when going into battle?  I’m thinking some bizarre cross of the usual superhero Spandex with the old man pants hiked up to the armpits.  I’d love your input as I work on my alter ego.  Help me write my origin story!