Friday, todays the day the steroids begin for real. So I wake up and spend time doing stuff to avoid the new little white pill. I set up my vitals record for Cycle 30 which started yesterday and took my vitals. They were okay but not as good as they have been. I finally get up and get dressed before making breakfast. I go with savoury bagel and orange juice to have along side my morning meds now enhanced with Steroids. Is taken a long time to get to this point in the morning, just plain old avoidance I guess. This is the day I start my getting fat avoidance strategy, so there are no more sweets, biscuits and goodies for me, that was until I found a solitary jelly baby amongst my journals. So I set myself up and ritually ate my last jelly baby as a transitional object to cement my commitment to my new diet of restraint.
With the ritual done and out of the way I walk over to the post office and buy small posting boxes so that I can send people copies of my anthology. Once home I sign a copy of the anthology and add a virgin copy to the assembled post box and return to the post office to send it on its way. I eye the sweet aisles and resist, after all the Last Jelly Baby was the agent of all sweets. Once home I settle down to do the daily crosswords and I am quite pleased with how they go. Feeling quietly good about the crosswords I attend to messages and emails. Most of my electronic stuff is rubbish it occasionally there are things that need and answer, today there were several of those. The post brings me the consultants notes from my last oncology review. It is as I remembered it including the consultants idea about revisiting the idea of radiotherapy. I am openly not keen. With everything done I fill the bird and squirrel feeders and inspect the garden before finally getting myself into my training kit and into the garage for a 30 minute row. It is the end of the afternoon, early evening, and I am tired so apprehensive about how a row will go. I set off and feel crap, I’ve no pull in my shoulders and no drive in my legs, I feel doomed not to reach my expected standard. I gradually work my way to the end of the session and with a big effort at the last 5 minutes I get through the 6 kilometre mark. I am pleased with this, especially as my partner and I are away over the weekend and I will not be able to train till Monday.
My efforts get recorded in my journal while my partner cooks tea. This evening we will watch men’s rugby on TV as the season kicks off and then it will be meds and bed for me. I am hoping that my renewed life style of exercise and the sweet treat abstinence will counter act the steroid side effects, this is the first day, I am guessing its going to get tougher.
