It’s Tuesday, and that means it’s back in the trough. “Trench” might be a better word to describe it: lower than usual, dark, with the sky and life above but seemingly out of reach at the moment.

I’m a bit better this week than last. My medical oncologist ordered hydration every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which means I go into the chemo infusion center to have a saline IV for an hour. Dehydration seems to have been behind some of the weakness and shakiness, so much as the hydrations can be a pain (both figuratively and literally, since they have to find a vein 4 times a week now), they’re worth it.

For chemo, I’m in my next to last week: I have one Thursday, then one the following Monday and that’s it for the lower dose weekly Carboplatin+Taxol. My radiation goes until 12/29, so I’m closing in on the end of that as well. I’ll still have the consolidation chemo (to snag any metastasis too small for a PET scan) but I’m not going to worry about that until the time comes. Instead, I’m going to focus on getting past this week’s chemo and to the point where I only have one left.

This too shall pass.