Cycle 5, Day 4: A fine day (except for the mania and nausea)

Today was a fine day, all things considered. Joe is mid-way through the course of prednisone that is the final drug of the chemo; the prednisone tends to make him feel super-manic and really hungry. At the same time, he is weak and generally nauseous. It completely messes with him: food is disgusting and yet he's starving; if he's eating, he feels fine; as soon as he stops eating, then he feels gross. We just have to get through this first ten days, then everything gets better -- and guess what, we only have to do this one more time. That makes it so much more bearable!

Today was a good day, though. We went to Fairfax and hung out with Lisa, Alex and Nicholas for a bit (that's Alex and Joe pictured above, life-long friends, at Revolution 9, sharing the cozy couch with a gigantic stuffed Totoro). From there, we made our first visit to the medical marijuana dispensary. Everyone in there is trippy and SO nice. And I love how they refer to everything as medicine. Which, of course, it is. Incredible, and our right as Californians. As instructed, I'm hanging on to the receipt for the weed-infused honey we bought, just in case The Man tries to bust our chops. I left the dispensary filled with gratitude for the people who put themselves on the line to make this possible - to defend the availability of pot to patients.

A sure cure, we've learned, for Joe's nausea and jumping-bean mind is long busy stretches outside. We spent a delightful several hours in the garden after we got home from Fairfax. We took down frost-damaged veggies, weeded, spread mulch, raked leaves, fed the compost. Utter bliss. And even in this darkest time of the year, such sweet things to eat: carrots and the last pomegranates from the tree, delicious.

Now that it's nighttime and we've had our dinner and are settling in for more of The Wire and then early to bed, I think we're both satisfied and happy about this day. It wasn't easy for Joe. Chemo sucks, but with friends and plants and each other, we're sailing on through, as happy as can be.