A New Home and Unexpected travel – Italy’s Greatest Cities!

(Trevi Fountain)

So here I was at home, recovering from chemo round 3, thinking that I had a good few weeks home before my next trip when I receive a call from my boss informing me that my co-worker (the one who has my back during this crazy cancer thing) is no longer with the company! YIKES! To top it all off I am in the process of moving to a new apartment (yes, those of you who keep my addresses in pencil get out your eraser!) and planning my gpa’s 90th birthday! If there was a wall to hit, I think I may have done it! Chemo, moving, dbl work load and additional travel – nope - nothing stressful going on here!
First – The New apartment – I had been temporarily staying with my totally awesome and supportive friend Diane since last July. I was supposed to be buying a condo and moving out within a few months, then I got cancer and that sort of changed the plans. She has been incredibly generous with her home and her love and let me continue living there (and all my caretakers in and out) through the cancer stuff. Now that I am almost through the woods, she is looking to sell her place (something she talked about doing since I moved in with her) and I needed to find a new home. I found a cute little cottage much sooner than expected and ended up moving this month! Now in the midst of chemo (at my most tired and unmotivated time) I am trying to unpack and move in – crazy!

Second – Italy’s Greatest Cities – So, since my co-worker is no longer with the company, someone needed to jump in and take her upcoming trip to Italy. Since I am trained and have been doing well it was decided that I would take the trip. Prior to leaving I had only a day or so in the office to prepare for the trip because my chemo recovery is taking a little longer each time. I hear it is cumulative and I get that, but I am ready to be done feeling tired! I used to be able to push through just about anything with or without sleep and now I am finding that even with sleep I still feel tired – geesh! Oh well – almost done! Tired or not, I would NEVER pass up the chance to return to my favorite country – Italy!

Our trip started in Rome, went to Florence, Pisa, Verona and Venice (my FAVORITE city). The group returned to Rome; however I departed from Venice one day before the group in order to make it to my last chemo appointment. It was a fantastic trip with an amazing group and a great guide - Mario. I was a little more tired than usual so instead of enjoying cafes and city life on the leisure time, I spent more time in my room enjoying the bathtub and room service! Not so bad!

We spent our time in Rome seeing the key tourist sites – The Colosseum, the Vatican, the Trevi fountain, etc. I love this city! During our tour of Florence, I joined our guide for coffee instead of visiting the museums again! Yes – I know some of you (Sheryl) love and appreciate museums…I dread them because I have to appear interested for the group even if it is the second or third time there! No Academy for me! This time we dropped the group off at the museum and then went to a café – something of much greater interest to me! On our way to Venice we stopped in Verona and saw the balcony of Romeo & Juliette. This was a cute little town completely overrun with tourists! YIKES! Get me out of this crowd. We finally arrived in Venice – MY FAVORITE! I love walking the streets and passing over the canals of this beautiful place. On a boat trip to Burano, I ran into my Venetian guide from a few years ago – Vanessa! She is so much fun it was great to get caught up. The trip was a success and the group members were so awesome and supportive that it almost didn’t feel like work!

Chemo 3 - Almost there!

(Dr. Kaplan & Me)

So needless to say life has been a bit crazy busy! Between Chemo and my travel schedule this has gone by pretty fast! Hard to believe I am almost through with the chemo part! In some ways it has been a lot easier than I thought it would be and in some ways much harder. I am lucky in that the type of chemo I am getting hits hard initially, then gives me two pretty good functional weeks. I am thankful to be able to keep up with my job and continue to travel – yeah for that! Yes – I am a bit crazy in that I scheduled my chemo around my work trips!

Chemo has been a weird ride. Sort of knocks you down, then you get up and feel good again just to repeat the process. At least the good weeks are longer than the bad days! Also, so happy for the good drugs because I haven’t really gotten super sick like I thought I would. Thank God for that because I HATE to throw-up. Sometimes chemo makes me feel a little nauseous and food certainly doesn’t taste good so I am not too interested in eating (if I needed a diet, this would work), but overall not too bad on the sick thing.

I think the worst part of chemo is that it makes me tired and unmotivated… those of you who know me, know that this is WORSE than being sick! It’s hard to explain, but after chemo, I feel tired, sometimes so tired I just want to sit there… it’s like thinking -hummm a cup of tea would be nice right now, but it seems like too much effort to go get it so I’ll just continue to sit here on the couch instead. At the same time, since I am not physically sick (just this crazy tired, unmotivated haze) I feel guilty for just sitting on the couch…. I think of all the things I could be or should be doing with this time off. Sometimes I try to do things, then find myself too tired to actually accomplish much. – I know in my head I should cut myself some slack, but for some reason I have this problem with sitting still! I guess because in my head I don’t really think of myself as sick. Nope – I am not sick!

A little note on the pictures - my parents took me to this chemo and I wore the pink hair! Think I will wear it to the next one too because it made such an impression on everyone else in the chemo room. The chemo room isn’t the most fun and exciting place to be so if I can make people smile or think of something else for a moment, then I am all for it! Bring on the pink hair! Prior to chemo, I meet with Dr. Kaplan – the best chemo doc ever – to discuss where things are at, check my blood work, etc. before he sends me off to the treatment room. He was so entertained by the wig he now wants pictures of it for the office.

Steamboat Colorado – POW! POW! POW!

Back to work again and this time leading a group of skiers, snowboarders & snowmobilers to Steamboat, Colorado (yes, I get paid for this job….seriously, someone has to do it). I have wanted to get to Steamboat for years and this was my chance. I met up with my super cool group (including a few that make it to the ski event annually) for a few days on the mountain. We started with a welcome reception the first night, then split off into two groups for the first full day of activity. The skiers/boarders were off to the mountain guide and fresh powder day up on the hill while the snowmobilers headed off on their own adventure. Super fun! I headed out with the skiers/snowmobilers and had a great day. Think the powder just about wiped everyone out.

Day two we again split into two groups and headed out – this time with more sun! Nice! We had a crazy pot luck Mexican night in which I sported the pink wig followed by a day at leisure, which for most of us (me too!) included another day on the mtn! How fun! The trip concluded with a farewell dinner at a local restaurant.

Great group! I was worried what people might think of my bald head (I don’t ride with a wig), but it hasn’t been a problem so far! Everyone has been super cool Great groups to travel with – haven’t had a challenging one yet during the chemo – recover – travel – chemo again schedule that I am on…