Catching Up

A couple surprising things happened last Monday.

Let’s start with the red pickup rental. Somehow, over the weekend of not going anywhere, my fear of driving the truck disappeared. However, I still wanted to return it for a few reasons. One, I had to pull myself up by the steering wheel to get in. Two, it barely fit in my garage. And three, its gas mileage was not great by my standards.

So, I returned it, exchanging it for a 2025 Toyota Rav 4. The car rental place here is a small operation that appears to do a brisk business, so there was no choice on my part but to accept what was offered. I would have preferred a regular sedan or compact, but at least I’m comfortable driving an SUV, and it gets good gas mileage. However, it presented a problem that I reported the next day: at 49 mph, it shimmies rather badly. Because of the amount of dried mud on the frame inside the back doors, I wondered if the previous customer had driven it in some rugged, muddy conditions. But since I was not offered another vehicle, I’ve simply kept the speed down. Not a problem except for the drive out to my daughter’s house, which involves a stretch of two-lane highway with a speed limit of 65 mph. Fortunately, there was not much traffic the two times I went there—just a few vehicles were anxious to get past me each time.

The second surprising thing is that on Monday my pre-stage IV cancer energy level suddenly returned. I woke up that morning feeling normal. I measure my energy by how much I can do in a day. Remember that after my first infusion in October, I chose not to drive because it used too much of my energy. Eventually, I came to the point that a week after an infusion, I could do a brief errand most days. And now? Well, I’ve driven my son to and from work each day, plus doing errands, even grocery shopping alone. On Thursday afternoon, I hit a wall, so to speak, and suddenly became exhausted. So, I rested up the rest of the day and took it easy on Friday as well. I was back to this new normal by Saturday morning.

And I expect to stay there until I have my next infusion this coming Thursday. Then, I’ll hang around at home for a few days to a week until the side effects subside. What a beautiful gift it is to be able to do normal, everyday things again at my former pace.