This last Wednesday, Jen & I took in another concert at the Hollywood Bowl. We saw the Wayne Shorter quartet followed by a tribute to legendary bassist Jaco Pastorius. It was an eclectic group of musicians with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Booker T. Jones, Sam Moore (from Sam & Dave), and even Robert Trujillo (from Metallica) all taking their turns on the stage. It's amazing to see these musicians who have been around for a while (Wayne Shorter is 82, Sam Moore is 80, and Herbie Hancock is 75) still giving it their all and still passionate about the music.
When we got home, we put on some music and spent about an hour and a half in our backyard watching the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower. Jen and I have probably seen at least 30 meteor showers together over the years. It is something that we have always both enjoyed. We usually drive out to someplace remote to get away from the city lights and lay out some blankets, turn on some music and watch the celestial fireworks. Fortunately our house is at the edge of the city and we get quite an amazing view of the stars from our backyard, especially when we are close to a new moon as we were the other night. For those of you who have never seen a meteor shower, you owe it to yourself to do so. Get away from the city and be amazed. It doesn't take long, even in a city like LA you can get to a fairly dark sky within an hour's drive. The Leonid Meteor shower is coming up on Nov 17. - Go if you can. On a good night you can see over a hundred shooting stars. Jen and I wished on every one we saw. We didn't talk about what we wished for, but for both of us, I am sure it was the same wish every time.
As I write this, Jen is lying in bed feeling the effects of the chemo. I'm not sure I have discussed her chemo before, so I thought I would share her experiences. Like there are many types of cancer, there are also many types of chemo. Jen's is fortunately, a pill that she can take at home (rather than an IV that she has to do in the oncology department). She is on her 9th cycle, which means the 9th time taking the chemo following the initial 6 week course of radiation and chemo. There are different views as to how many cycles one should take, but the general practice is currently to try and get through 12 cycles if there is no growth in the tumors. People have taken more cycles, and as we approach Jen's 12th cycle this will be a conversation we will be having with her doctors. Chemo is not something that can be continued indefinitely though, as the cumulative risk of side effects becomes too great. Each of Jen's cycles is 5 days on and 23 days off. Jen doesn't typically feel the effects of the chemo until after the 2nd day, which is why we were able to go to the Bowl on her first day following the start of the current cycle. By the 2nd day she experiences nausea, extreme fatigue, headaches, stomach cramps, constipation, and eventually diarrhea. These symptoms tend to worsen over the next several days and continue for about 2-3 days following the completion of the chemo. These are general symptoms and some days are better and some worse. We try not to plan any activity at all during these days. Fortunately, the chemo that she is on is one of the better tolerated ones. She doesn't spend her days vomiting as can occur with some chemo drugs. It is such a strange thing to willingly take a drug that is essentially poisoning your body. The hope is that it affects the cancer worse than the healthy cells. In the meantime, I am looking forward to Jen feeling better in a few days.
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