Back from New York

David Poncelow — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 01:43:00 +0000

I got back from my New York trip on Saturday night- it went better than I could have hoped. This last round of chemo has been the best yet. It started with my blood counts: we had known since I started chemo that there was a possibility that I would be too prone to infection to be able to risk the plane trip. My oncologist recommended that we continue to plan for the trip, but understand that we might have to cancel at the last minute. It all hinged on my white blood cell counts. They came back in the midrange of normal. That’s not something I would have expected.

Then came the next surprise: on Friday, I had energy. I was still a little slow, yes, but the fatigue that I have come to expect for the first couple days wasn’t there. I was bouncing all over the place in anticipation for the trip. No nap, and I was ready to go to bed around 10pm.. normal time. That experience lasted the whole trip. I had one nap on Monday after walking around the Village with some friends, but they slept a while too. I went the rest of the week without so much as needing a nap. Most of the time I was almost wearing my girlfriend out.

It was a great time- my favorite thing to do in a new place is walk. I love seeing the different areas of a city, getting a feel for what the geography is like, how the neighborhoods fit together, the energy of the place. It’s kind of like looking over a new gadget the first time, seeing where the buttons and dials are before digging into how to really use it. New York is a great place to walk. Every day I walked and walked into new areas- through the Village, around Midtown, through Central Park, over the Brooklyn Bridge. I’m pretty sure that the 2 1/2 miles that I walked in the parade on Thanksgiving day was the least I walked on any of the days. I was so happy, so relieved- getting to walk like that was what I was most afraid I wouldn’t have energy for.

The Thanksgiving parade itself was a blast, though awfully wet and cold. I got to be one of the handlers on one of the Macy’s elf balloons- the red one. Being one of the very last balloons, most of the time was waiting in the staging area for our turn, talking and shivering. Once we got moving we had a great time. The reason I chose to do one of the elves is that they are small balloons, so we were able to play with them a little more- when the parade would stop (usually waiting for a performance in Harold Square or a commercial) we would sometimes run around in a circle to make the elf spin or wiggle the lines back and forth to make him dance. Again, I was _so_ glad to have the energy to do all of that- it was a great opportunity, and I would have been disappointed to have missed it.

Oh, and the food… wow. I’m wondering how much weight I’ve gained.

It seemed like a such a quick trip- New York is such a sprawling, chaotic, frenetic city that I feel like I got just the smallest taste. Now that I know just a little bit I’m looking forward to returning and digging a little deeper- going through some of the museums, seeing some theater. I’m sure that it won’t be too long before I’m heading back that direction.

Z80 - The Diagnosis Is Not Consistent With The Gender of the Patient: Tag nyc

Back from New York