The effects of the Dexamethasone must have been wearing off when we arrived home yesterday as it was not long before I looked over to discover Gloria had taken up residence in dreamland on the couch next to me.

When she awoke, I reported what my researching had turned up in regard to insomnia and Dexamethasone. Some people reported that the effects were so severe that they quit taking it. Others reported that their home had never been so clean because if they were going to be awake all night, they might as well make good use of the time.

The most practical suggestion echoed by many, including doctors, was to push the time of ingestion back, such as taking it at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Gloria decided she'd try that.

We went to bed about midnight with the plan I would awaken her in the morning to take the drug and then let her sleep a while longer, awakening her for her blood-cell-boosting injection at 10:30 a.m.

As we sometimes do, I read to her for a while last night. But I had barely finished one page when she was again in dreamland. I think she is adjusting.

There was, however, a 2 a.m. “incident.” In said incident, I smacked her ... the location of that smack remains uncertain owing to our both being asleep before a sudden transition to being awake.

I had been dreaming we were going to take a stray cat home with us, but our dog was giving the cat a hard time, not wanting to share our attention. When the dog kept jumping on the cat, I gave what I thought was the dog's behind a smack, but it turned out it wasn't the dog's posterior, but some part of Gloria - oh, and we don't have a dog!

Gloria was worried she might not get back to sleep after being so rudely awakened. Another worry that didn't materialize.

Gloria did go to her meeting and returned home around 3:45 p.m. Soon, she relaxed on the small living room couch and with Minnie curled up on Gloria's legs, the pair drifted off. But before Gloria passed over, she insisted I include the following:

Last Christmas, Gloria's brother Dave gave me one of those daily calendars labeled "Fact or Cr*p." Gloria adopted it and the one for December 2 and 3 spoke to her:

- December 2: "Ants are being trained to sniff out cancer." Since I knew this was being done with dogs, my vote was it was true - and it is true!

- December 3: "Eating pizza can prevent certain cancers." My vote was this one seemed unlikely to be true. The calendar stated it was true, with the lycopene in the tomatoes likely being the active agent as per an unnamed study of cancers of the colon, esophagus and mouth. However, not mentioned was that pepperoni - a highly processed meat popular on pizzas is linked with intestinal cancers, so eating pizza to stay healthy may be a stretch!

Final Note: While there will be what are expected to be routine lab tests to monitor her situation, the recording of a heart echo cardiogram that had been delayed by her cold, and what should be a routine follow-up with Doering to make sure her chest is well healed, things should be fairly quiet until after Christmas and the onset of Cycle two of the six big chemo treatments.