41.6666...% of the Way to the End!

Remember those rational numbers? In this case, I have now completed 5/12 of my chemo infusions (five of the planned twelve). 5/12 is the same as 41.666...%. Yay! Well, technically, this round is almost finished. You may recall that one of the two FOLFOX drugs is completed at the infusion center, while the other is completed at home over a subsequent 46 hours while I am connected to a pump. That infusion is still underway but will end at about 10:08AM on Friday.

In the checkup with my oncologist this morning, I learned that because two different tests indicate a very strong likelihood of no recurrence of the cancer once the chemotherapy is completed, she may stop one of the two FOLFOX infusions (oxaliplatin) after maybe the 7th round. I would still have to complete the other, which is the one administered at home via the pump. This is good news, because the oxaliplatin is the one with the curious side effects related to sensitivity to cold, first byte syndrome, and neuropathy. This will also essentially eliminate the three hour visits to the infusion center each week.

The 14 days of self-administered blood thinners prescribed to deal with the blood clot in my leg seem to have solved that problem. My leg is back to normal, and I am now taking a pill form of a blood thinner once each day at a maintenance dosage level. That will continue until around one or two months following completion of the chemotherapy.

Typically, the 4th through 6th days after each infusion appointment are not so great. I am quite fatigued and have a limited appetite. This time around and with prospects for warmer weather, I'm going to try to get out for more walks, limit my naps, and see if I can bounce back more quickly. My oncologist encouraged this plan. Usually, after this brief slump, the second week or more of each chemo round, is much better. Indeed the seven or eight days prior to today have been quite enjoyable. I've been working in my shop again, and I have done quite a bit of yard work, including clearing some brush and cutting some firewood in the woods at the back of our lot.

This morning, while in the chair at the infusion center, I had this view out the window:

That's Kinnick Stadium, of course. My smart aleck oldest child (a mere 54-year-old whippersnapper) said, and I quote, "Too bad there's no game today. You could be on the receiving end of the Hawkeye Wave!"

I don't know about that, but I did get to thinking about all the time I have spent in that stadium at Hawkeye football games, including a couple games when I was in high school and then many more when I was a student and employee of the University of Iowa, which was called the State University of Iowa or SUI in those early years. Some of you may know that I was a member of the SUI Hawkeye Marching Band during my undergraduate years. So as I sat this morning looking out at the stadium, I realized that it was 60 years ago that I first marched there in the fall of 1962. The football teams during those years were pretty sad, but I thought the band was great! We never got to go to a bowl game, but it was otherwise one of the greatest experiences of my life. We did get to travel to one out of town football game each year and performed with the host university's band during their halftime. I believe the ones I experienced were: Northwestern, Indiana, Ohio State, and Wisconsin.

At home, we shared halftime performances with the SUI Scottish Highlanders, which no longer exist. The band consisted of only 120 members, plus a few alternates, and only men were allowed to belong. (I think over 240 are involved now, including both men and women.) The only woman involved with the band was the single baton twirler, both then and now known as the Hawkeye Golden Girl. Why only men? Two reasons, I guess. One is that the director didn't think women were up to the rigors of marching in the disciplined style that he insisted on. (Don't blame me! This was clearly a chauvinist attitude and wrong, but there it is.) Second, participation in the band was the only way one could be excused from the mandatory ROTC requirement that existed during those years. In exchange for the band providing marching music for various ROTC parades, including the Governor's Review of the Cadets each spring, band members did not have to take ROTC classes or be enrolled in the program. With the Vietnam War hanging over our heads during those years, mandatory ROTC programs and subsequent service requirements were not exciting. One other tidbit is that after John Kennedy was assassinated, a subset of the band, including me, was brought together to quickly learn to march to a funeral cadence and to march to the east side of Old Capitol to participate in a service in honor of the fallen President. I have seen photographs of that event from time to time and believe one may still be on display at the GreenState Credit Union's Iowa Avenue location in Iowa City.

I got my start playing clarinet in the Lowden High School band:

True! I was not a very tall person during my school years. I gained most of the last 6" of my eventual 6' height during the year after I graduated from high school. Here are a couple pictures of me as a proud Hawkeye Marching Band member:

I had that last photo taken as a Christmas gift for my parents.