Farmville.

The picture to the left is of my farm.

My farm has two orchards, a turkey roost, pig pen, bee hive, two fruit stands, an animal trough, a dairy, and a bakery.  It also has a tractor, seeder, and harvester as well as a horse stable and garage that are under construction.

The farm also has 23 neighbors, but I only know three of them personally.  Cindy Hanford, Linda Hanford, and Ed Drury.

You are probably asking yourself “What the heck is he talking about and what does it have to do with cancer?”.

Well, I’m talking about the Facebook game Farmville.  Its relation to cancer is that when you’re so ill that your guts are in constant revolt having a mindless diversion is a godsend.

And Farmville is a wonderfully mindless diversion.

I have to admit that though this entire cancer adventure has been an ordeal, this last stretch has been a particular pain in the ass.

Fortunately, I’ve been off chemo for the past four days and am feeling pretty good.  Getting the extra nutrition through the TPN is working well and it’s not creating major problems so far.

I had a wonderful time at a New Years party with Linda, Nancy, Ed, and Lisa.  I also enjoyed Christmas, though I was still on chemo and had to excuse myself several times to have a private conversation with my stomach.  We also had a fun holiday visit with Bill and Dee where my stomach behaved quite nicely.

On Wednesday we will chat with Dr Ey.

We have several issues to discuss.

Since my port is no longer available because of the TPN, there is a possibility I might start getting the 5FU (Picard Juice) in one shot per week rather than as a 24/7 infusion.  Another possibility is bagging the 5FU entirely.

There is also the issue of the feeding tube.  Though we had the tube replaced, it still doesn’t work.  My body, which is as stubborn as the rest of me, just won’t tolerate being fed that way.  We either need to figure a way to get it to work or yank the damn thing out.

I’m confident we’ll come up with a workable plan for getting me through the rest of treatment, though I’m not quite certain what it is.

If my white blood cell count is up on Wednesday I will begin my second (and next to last) super duper chemo treatment.

If that’s the way it plays out I’ll spending a lot of time on the farm.