Achievement Unlocked - One Cycle Complete

We spent the day relaxing with friends.  One more board game was played in the morning with Eric and Michelle (we squeezed it in right before lunch).  This one is called Carcassonne and it's super fun.  You build cities and roads and claim them for yourself with little tokens called Meeples.  Well, I should tell you that it's origin is in Germany.  Leave it to the Germans to pick mundane tasks for the theme of a game.  Seriously, though, this is one of Roberto's favorite games.  You've probably guessed by now that I'm a super nerd about board games.  I blame Eric and Michelle (yes, I know you're reading this).

Eric and Michelle stayed for lunch and we met up with Kat, Rob, Jim, Jun, baby Sophia, and Martha for a lunch buffet which was so fun.  We hadn't hung out with all of them for a long time and it gave me a sense of normalcy that I hadn't felt for a while.  Martha is gracing us with her presence for the next two days to lend a helping hand with Adam.  :)  It's great to have her lovely face around and an extra voice against watching the Top Gear Bolivia Special.  We escaped with having watched only the first 20 minutes.  Whew.

When Michelle and Eric came the other day, they brought with them a bunch of ginger products:  candy, tea and soda!  Roberto is not going to be running out of ginger candy any time soon.  I truly hope one or all of these helps Roberto through this week.

Speaking of gifts, Roberto received a care package in the mail from the awesome Jessica!  She sent a gift card to iTunes and Starbucks (good call on my addiction to coffee, Jessica!).  She also sent hard candy made by the creepy Ginger People!  OK, they are not creepy, just creepy to me with their little ginger limbs.

Well, Roberto made it to the end of one cycle!  He's one-fourth of the way through his chemotherapy treatment.  There's nine more weeks to go which seems like forever at this point.  This week will be hard but we'll take it one day at a time with all your well-wishes, thoughts, and prayers to keep us going.  :)

Cycle 1 - Day 21

ROBOSTRONG!

Cycle 1 - Day 8

Roberto is practically back to normal.  We did some gardening (we moved pots around, it was not labor intensive) and he did some handy things around the house like fixing a chair.  He also played a bunch of video games in the afternoon.  That's the more typical Roberto behavior.  :P   Amanda stopped by for a short visit today.  She's been hanging out randomly during the past week when she can which is awesome! 

Roberto also got a nice care package in the mail from Tasia!  Take a look at the goods:

Now I don't have to look for hard candy because Tasia found some Queasy Drops.  No more scary Ginger People for us.  And yes, that is a T-Rex.  It's a known fact that T-Rexes are the best dinosaurs for fighting cancer.  We are definitely going to have to play some of those Mad Libs in the future. 

Eric made up a great word that I love:  Robostrong!  Reading and saying the word brings a smile to my face.  Roberto likes it too.  We're going to stay Robostrong for the rest of the year!
 

Home Improvement

Cycle 1 - Day 7

Roberto's energy was up today!  No naps for that guy.  He went for a walk (down the block again), ate various solid foods including plums and lasagna, and even folded the clean clothes!  I've run around the house doing various chores and for some reason I have this huge mental block against folding the clean clothes.  I'll happily wash dishes all day while ignoring the two week's worth of clean clothes pile.  

Jim stopped by again to hang out for a bit sans his virus-carrying baby (she had live-virus vaccinations last week).  Roberto has to be careful of catching any viruses because chemotherapy compromises his immune system.  It was nice that Roberto was more awake to enjoy Jim's company.  Adam is here again for the week to help out and I have a new partner for playing Borderlands 2.  :)

Roberto seems to be recovering quickly from the chemotherapy drugs which is encouraging.  Roberto is planning on enjoying the next two weeks before the start of the second cycle.  He hit such a low during the week when he was sick.  It was hard trying to get through Thursday and Friday.  I'm going to try to find some good ginger candy before the next round; it'll have to be hard candy since he did not like the chewy candy the nurses gave him.  The brand of the candy is "Ginger People" with this scary looking ginger person on the package.  There must be some other candy out there with ginger.  

Here's to a good rest of the week!