I’ve had a few people ask me how I made it through the days I was on chemo, and what I did so that I didn’t go insane when I was in that chemo chair all day. I was very lucky that the nurses I got at the Markey Cancer were some of the best, and that they never forgot about their patients. It’s been almost a year since I sat down in any the chemo chairs at Markey. Every time I walked into Markey, whenever one of the chemo nurses who would be attending to me saw me, they made an effort to say hello and ask how I’m doing. The nurses were the real MVP’s of the Markey Cancer, not the Doctors or the Oncologists. It was the nurses who had to deal with patients who were puking either in the bathroom or getting us pans to puke in because we weren’t able to get up to go to the bathroom. Having gone through last year’s chemo treatment isn’t something I would wish on my worst enemy. It’s pretty rough on you.
I’m going to dive into what I did on days I didn’t feel good during chemo, and what I did while I sat in that chemo chair for sometimes up to 6 to 8 hours a day. I had either my surface or my laptop with me most days, but I slowly learned that I couldn’t do any writing or work. This blog was still just starting to formulate in my mind. Although I knew I wanted to do a blog, I had no idea what I wanted to talk about in it. Instead of writing, I mostly watched YouTube videos, TV shows and movies. I may occasionally have played a video game or 2 on my laptop when I was there, but most of the time I didn’t have the energy to do much more than watch something. I barely had the energy to even use the equipment I had with me. I was happy if I could finish listening to a song or a whole TV show when I was in that chair without falling asleep. I wasn’t bored so much as I was tired because of the need to get up at 6 or 7 AM in order to get ready for my 9 or 10 AM appointment. Didn’t need to get up as early as I did for chemo treatments, but I wanted to have semi-normal life. I didn’t (and couldn’t) go to work after many of the treatments when I was done for the day, but because I needed the money and I wanted to make sure I could pay my rent and my other bills I often forced myself to go to work.
So here I am nearly a year later and approaching the year mark after my last treatment. What has changed for me in the last year? Well, all my check-ups have been clean so that is a huge plus. Everyday is a gift and I am not taking any day for granted anymore. So, I have begun going to the gym on a regular basis to get myself in shape. I have been trying to eat more healthy food, drink less pop and fast food. I am trying to make healthier lifestyle choices now that I have been given a second chance at life.
One thing I have done is to not waste time dreaming about doing things and have instead started doing them. For example, I am currently working with one of my best friends, the guy who does all my web site hosting over at Blade node. I am helping him build out a data center for his company. He wants to stop renting space from other hosting sites and bring his entire web hosting into his own data center operation in his house. He saw what I have been doing with my home lab. Although my home lab is in no way complete or anywhere near data center quality, he came to me and indicated he wanted something similar for his own home lab. However, he wanted it for business purposes, not home use. His company is called Stafford Technologies, and he is working with Wedlund Enterprises LLC to assist in building out his own data center operation. It’s going to be a lot of work, but he is seeing good things coming from our collaboration on this project. He should have a very nice data center when everything is all said and done.
I also decided to start my own YouTube channel. I am still trying to decide on the type of content I want to put out. I had an idea to go visit haunted places to try to catch a spirit, poltergeist or supernatural phenomenon on video. Let me know in the comments if that is something you would like to see me do. I have also been expanding my blog out into other areas including food and car repair reviews. Eventually, I plan to do reviews on new cars as I get more money together for researching and test driving various models. I feel that I may need a lot of patrons to make those review efforts a productive reality. I have my very own patron for the blog now, but if you wish to support me just know you can, and I encourage it. Patrons allow me to review areas and to keep the reviews flowing.
Other things I have planned or that I’m working on include a new home theater for my apartment from the ground up. I kind of already have started this project with my TV and the Xbox One S. But ultimately, this is going to be a multi-step process with a lot of things I’m going to need to purchase, review and explain how it all goes together. This is where my knowledge of technology and my ability to assemble things go together. It will take a lot of research on my part to be able to make sure I know what I’m doing before I purchase any equipment and to ensure that what I’m purchasing will work the way I want it to. I expect this home theater project to take several months just to complete the research, with several more months to write all the reviews for it.
In closing, I have a lot planned for this year and the following year post Chemotherapy. Already, half of this year is gone, but I am working on a variety of projects to keep myself busy and learning. The next few posts of mine may be patron only posts, because I’m going to be discussing the Stafford’s Technologies build out for his data center. However, when that build out is done, I will post an overview of what we had to do and how much it cost. if you are interested in seeing it all come together as we build it out, please join my patron group for $10/month.
Thanks for reading
Jason
