October is always a super busy time in my household. All three of us have birthdays this month, and I have an annual work trip, too. It is one of my favorite times of the year, filled with fun activities, but it is definitely hectic.

I got home earlier this week from the aforementioned work trip. It is an opportunity to see in person friends I generally only keep up with on the internet. And I get to see sheep and goats and yarn and beautiful handmade clothes. I love being there, and it is always a particular bummer to get treatment the week after. For a weekend I forget I have cancer, and it is a rude reawakening to find myself back in the chemo chair.

Last time I talked about about being able to come off a medication I had been taking preventatively to prevent rash from my chemo. That rash showed up this week, so clearly the medication had been effective. I’m getting back on it and looking forward to the improvement.

I met with my team today and things are continuing to go well. We’ve reached a kind of autopilot and that’s everyone’s goal for my treatment. I have one more and then a PET scan, my least favorite because for prep I have to avoid all sugars/starches for 24 hours. If that looks stable then we’re talking about spreading out my scans to every 3 months. I’ll happily take a little more time between scans!

Running and meditation are both going really well. I managed a 3 mile run last week and am going to try for 4 this weekend. I’m hoping I can train for the Austin Marathon this February and run the half-marathon distance. In meditation class we are getting to some big stuff that is really challenging how I handle difficult feelings. I am loving how it feels when I put it into practice and am working on recognizing when it’s time to call on those skills.