valiha

Bridge-city on the Green River is my personal journal, and my posts are mainly fandom related. I also hope to use it to post my latest attempts at color pencil drawing and watercolor painting, as well as calligraphy. If you'd like to have a journal, planner or a diary handmade for you, you can read more about what I offer in this entry.

Occasionally I will write about some RL events; those entries will be flocked.

Please show me the courtesy of not crossposting the comments you make here or the comms I maintain/co-mod to Facebook and/or Twitter, especially if those are comments to an flocked post. I prefer keeping those sites separate from LJ. You can find out more about my preference in this entry. Thank you!

Thank you for stopping by!

Do you also find it annoying when you get on the bus or the tram, and there's a person sitting in the isle seat instead of the empty window seat, clearly trying to prevent somebody from sitting next to them? They often have their handbag or daily shopping on that seat. It pisses me off so much. Like, yeah I understand you'd rather not ride with us other plebs, but tough luck; you should have bought a car then. There's nearly always a crowd on public transport and you can't expect people to simply let you have all that space for yourself. I always say, Excuse me, is that seat taken? and squeeze past them, no matter the dirty looks.
This entry was originally posted at https://valiha.dreamwidth.org/130116.html. Feel free to comment here or there. There are currently comments on the original post.

Is anyone on my flist posting for Inktober this year? I was thinking of trying it for the first time, then forgot today is October 1st :D Still, I have some time before the end of the day.

On June 1 I received my last chemotherapy.

:sigh of relief:

I think it's only today that it really hit me that I won't have to be going back there for more chemicals to be pumped through my veins (my poor veins!). This past month has been really crazy, with me falling ill several days after going home: my fever spiked at above 38°C, and lasted for a few days, but luckily there were no intestinal problems, which was a major issue the last time I experienced something similar.

I'm lucky in that my GP's office is located in the same neighborhood, just five minutes away, so I was monitored for any symptoms that would require me to be hospitalized again. It took a couple of weeks, but after that I was back on my feet.

I still feel achy all over; even going to the grocery store across the street leaves me tired and sore. I've also gone to work for a few hours last week, so that's also tiring, especially since it takes an hour to get there, and an hour to go back.

Next ween on Tuesday will me my first check-up; the results of the MRI, PET CT, the ultrasound and my bloodwork are all OK. The check-ups will be scheduled every three months for the next two years; after that they'll be scheduled for every six months. I've got to drink plenty of water - 2 - 2.5 liters every day minimum, eat a lot of vegetables, go to the mountains, and be more physically active (I was always hungry during the therapy when I wasn't sick and throwing up, so I gained a lot of weight - I thought it would be the opposite).

All that is going to be a problem because of finances: I am on sick leave, which means I get 80% of my pay, and I stopped working at my second job because it was a night shift and after a while I just couldn't keep up any more. Still had to pay back my loan every month, and I have 13 more years before I own my apartment. I will definitely have to find some additional work to help wit the expenses.

I also restarted working on my postgraduate thesis - I tried to keep up during the therapy, but I couldn't keep up. I'd often start reading a page, and would have to go back several times because I couldn't follow what was being said. Luckily I had spoken with my mentor and she said I should concentrate on getting my health back together and that we'll talk again after I was finished with my therapy.

We met on Thursday, and spoke at length about what I need to do and what to focus on; I still feel like this is a huge project, especially since my BA was in another field and I had to catch up a lot to be able to do this (it still feels like there are huge gaps in my knowledge that I have to fill). But at least things are clearer, and seem a little more manageable. I have to send in the first draft of the first part of the thesis on July 20, so I hope the deadline will help me focus.

But here's hoping that it will all turn out fine in the future :)

This entry was originally posted at http://valiha.dreamwidth.org/127806.html. Feel free to comment here or there. There are currently comments on the original post.

Yesterday I received the last medication in the course of my chemotherapy. It lasted about five hours, and I didn’t need to stay at the hospital ward overnight.

My first after chemo check-up will be in a month, and I’m hoping for good results. I also hope that my appetite will go back to normal - I’ve been hungry all the time, which was a surprise. When I started, I thought I would lose my appetite but the opposite happened. As a result, I gained weight, and now will have to work extra hard to get rid of it.

I’m on medical leave until mid August, so hopefully by that time I will have started getting back in shape.