Explanation of the term "stoned"

When you first get into chemo, you have to take drugs to prepare for chemo. They include things like anti nausea tablets, antibiotics like the sulfamonster and steroids for the brain swelling.

You have to take all of that everyday before you even take the chemo.

I'm not really sure which one of the above "stones" you but when you take them, you feel a little woozy and I prefer to describe that as "stoned" instead of "drunk". Everybody that knows me knows that I don't do alcohol of anykind. I don't like being around drunks, in fact, while I'm at it, I hate drunks and will do anything to maintain as much distance as possible from them.

Now, when you do the radiation, you don't have to take any drugs to prepare for that. Radiation will however, give you a similar set of circumstances that the drugs do. By that I mean, there is a "feeling" you get when all that is done. The docs typically refer to that as "fatigue". In any event, you are drug induced in the morning before, during and after chemo and you are also "reacting to radiation" in the same fashion from there on out.

This morning resulted in an accounting of the difference in sleep patterns before and after steroid adjustment. Way to go, Jr. It was a fabulous, wonderful, restful night of rest.

I slept 4 hours before my unscheduled 1 a.m. pit stop and then went back down for another 5 hours and 15 minutes. That's right, 9 1/2 hours of rest between 9 p.m. and 8:15 a.m. when Tim Jr and Kristin came over and began the daily duty cycle to take care of me.

The only difference I've noted here and the main reason I'm posting this note has to do with "waking up stoned". I don't ever recall waking up woozy. I always "get woozy" by 9 o'clock or so and I think that "woozy" was a result of the specific mix of drugs.

Now, with Jr's elimination of the steroid wars between speed and fatigue, I believe the "woozy" or the stoned part of being stoned the minute you open your eyes in the morning, is fatigue.

For those of you who have emailed concerns about the possibility of me getting hooked on whatever it is that I'm taking, I appreciate the concern but want to assure you that I'm not in any danger of getting hooked on anything.

If there's any danger, it may be that I might want to "quit" taking some of this stuff before time. I won't do that, but being stoned alot of the time is sometimes funny to your friends from the sixites but it definately is not fun everyday or every morning. It is especially not fun if you like to read and write emails to your people like I do. I'm not complaining, I'm just explaining.

Okay that's it for this morning. It's 9:21 a.m. and I'm already done with chemo. Yeah, I'm stoned.

Thanks for the comment section here and by email. I like it alot and am glad that so many of you are reading the blog and the link section is helping so much with the cancer patients in your families.

More pictures being posted soon as soon as Tim Jr gets em scanned. More stuff from Vietnam and the cockpit. Some from Uncle Charles and Aunt Grace. Neat. Thanks again Tim Jr. what a kick butt take name job you did on the speed wars............................Love you, Poppa.