Day
five started out foggy and cold,
which was rather difficult when it came to my painful hands and wrists. I went
slow and did the best that I could to grip the handlebars carefully. There was
an unofficial rest stop at a cookie shop and they were giving out free coffee –
I don’t think I’ve ever been more grateful to hold a hot cup of coffee in my
hands. The fog did eventually burn off, though, and the day warmed up to hot.
Somehow, as the day wore on, I began to feel worse and worse. At first, I
couldn’t quite figure out why – there was only minimal climbing and 55 miles
didn’t even feel like that much riding to me anymore. Why was I struggling so
much? Then I realized why: I had taken my dose of methotrexate the night
before, just like I do every week. Though sometimes the methotrexate doesn’t bother me, other times it
leaves me feeling exhausted and nauseous the following afternoon. So I
struggled through the last few miles of the day as the chemo hangover hit.
It was a relatively short and easy day and so we got to camp
early – actually in time to join happy hour and to socialize with the other
riders, which was rare. Unfortunately, I was feeling way to gross and exhausted by that point. I had
to go straight to our tent (which our friends had kindly set up for us) and lay
down. I stayed in the tent resting while APL went with our friends for
margaritas, which did make me feel a little sad. But I knew that the rest would
be the best thing to give me the chance to ride again tomorrow. And I did feel
a bit better by dinnertime.
To be continued…
No comments:
Post a Comment