What a start to the week!

OK, this is an incredible start to a week -- even for one who is as great a believer in prayer as I am! I've made it well into Tuesday evening -- 48 hours after my PEG-Intron shot -- without any side-effects. What a blessing!

One thing I've noticed since coming back to work: I'm having to work at remembering the Rebetol. While on Family Leave, I've been taking it "on the 8s" - around 8 a.m. and around 8 p.m . Well, since going back to work, I've gotten off schedule: not getting up until after 9 a.m., so taking my meds in the morning has come between 9:30 and 10 a.m. Tonight, I didn't remember to take it until around 9:40. Scared the you-know-what 0ut of me that I almost forgot! So, I called my trusty "Be In Charge" nurse who said the time difference was nothing to worry about. "You just want to be the in ballpark."

Now, I have a Post-It on my terminal that says "Rebetol!" I think I'll program it into my Palm Pilot. You get caught up with things in the Newsroom and it might help to have an alarm going off, saying, "Take your pills, dummy!" (heh-heh) I set it for 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. I'd still like to stay on that schedule. It's just easy to remember, "Healing on the 8s."

Grace and peace ...

At the end of the day ...

I've had a really good first day back at work. No side-effects from Sunday night's shot that I can identify ... and when they hit, they are usually identifiable.

We again changed things around a little bit on Sunday night:

• Instead of the generic version of Tylenol PM, I took three generic ibuprofens and two benadryl capsules around 10 p.m. I slept through the night and awakened at 7:30 a.m.
• Around the same time as my Rebetol dose, I took three more ibuprofen.
  

By later today (notice it's just after midnight), I should know whehter any PEGIntron side-effects are going to emerge at all. I took two more ibuprofen a few minutes ago.

The Daily Times work day went well, for the most part, but here it is 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, which means I have fallen back to my old hours already. I'm sort of dragging, getting quite tired, but I really expected at least that much to evolve on my first day back.

All in all, though, I am still feeling quite blessed.

Grace and peace ...