Weekly Update

I had a pretty crappy Thanksgiving, despite being off the chemo for 4 days. Felt sick most of the time.

We drove up to my sister's house in Windsor on Saturday morning (about 3 hours), had a great meal. It was really nice to see everybody. The one big down side is that now my wife and kids are hooked on something called a Wii and it looks like I'll be spending my next couple paychecks upgrading my game system. Oddly enough, my last game system was a Nintendo, too. The original. We had planned on spending the night and driving home Sunday, but I was feeling pretty sick by about 8, so we drove home so I could be miserable at home, rather than in a hotel room.

Monday's chemo treatment pretty much put me in a fog for the rest of the day (see chemobrain below). Today, the cold sensitivity has really kicked in. I was brushing my teeth this morning and reached down to get a handful of water to rinse. It felt like I had grabbed hold of a 120-volt line. It's that painful numb buzzing feeling, and sticks around for about 5 minutes or so. If I breath cold air, I'm hoarse for 5-10 minutes. I'll be putting up Christmas lights outside this weekend, so that should be fun.

Also on the up side, my bowels seem to be functioning much better. The radiologist said that would happen as the tumor shrank. I guess the radiation is working, so that's good.

I guess that's about all for the past week, nothing really eventful.

Glass Half Full

Talked about diet with my radiologist today. I am now under strict doctor's orders to NOT lose any weight. So now I have a few months to not feel guilty about being fat. There's a silver lining in every dark cloud :)

Cumulative Effects

Apparently, a lot of the chemo side effects are cumulative. Well tolerated at first, the olaxiplatin is kicking my butt today. Specifically, cold sensitivity is now real. If I hold on to a can of cold soda for more than about 15 seconds it hurts. A lot. If I try to swallow a cold liquid, it hurts like if you had a bad sore throat from a cold. Swallowing tepid or warm liquids is no problem at all. Lucky for me it's November :)

I have also done a little self diagnosis. I think I'm suffering from chemo brain. From the web site:

• Word finding. You might find yourself reaching for the right word in conversation.


• Memory. You might experience short-term memory lapses, such as not remembering where you put your keys or what you were supposed to buy at the store.


• Multitasking. Many jobs require you to manage multiple tasks during the day. Multitasking is important at work as well as at home — for example, talking with your kids and making dinner at the same time. Chemotherapy may affect how well you're able to perform multiple tasks at once.


• Learning. It might take longer to learn new things. For example, you might find you need to read paragraphs over a few times before you get the meaning.


• Processing speed. It might take you longer to do tasks that were once quick and easy for you.

What it feels like is that balloon-headed feeling you get when you have the flu. It's just damned hard to concentrate, or remember what it was I was supposed to be doing. Doing simple tasks like driving, or participating in conference calls, where I'm only focusing on one thing, seem to be ok. Organizing the many things to do at work isn't working out very well. I'm missing things. Stuff that needs done isn't getting done. I think I'm going to start working from a list, see if that helps. According to this site, it could be the anti-nausea medicine causing it. I'll talk to my oncologist about it.

On another note, the radiation machine was broken today, so I didn't get zapped. It'll be fixed tomorrow morning, so I'll get a lunch-time shot of X-Rays. This will push my last day of treatment from December 22nd to the 23rd. I don't know if this effects the chemo treatments or not, I'll check with them tomorrow.

Getting the hang of it

I've figured out now what causes what. The oxaliplatin I get as an IV on Monday mornings makes me feel like crap for about 2 days. Tuesday night is the worst. Last week I was barfing my guts out, this week I took the anti-nausea stuff and was ok, but still a little queezy, and a LOT run down. Be Wednesday afternoon I was feeling pretty good, Wednesday evening I even worked out a bit on the elliptical. Today, Thursday, I feel great.

I also figured out how to take a shower with the port (fanny pack full of chemo hooked to a port in my upper chest that delivers the medicine directly to a vein just above the heart). The dressing isn't waterproof, so you have to cover it. Glad Press'n Seal Wrap works like a champ. It seals to the skin really well and is waterproof. It doesn't come off in the shower either. I had to mount a hook just outside the shower to hang the fanny pack on, too. This is a definite quality of life improvement.

I think I'm starting get some of the cold sensitivity from the oxaliplatin. I mentioned this to Ashley (my 14-year-old daughter) last night, so this morning she offered to start my car for me to warm it up. I thought that was very sweet, so I let her. My car is a stick shift, and you have to hold the clutch all the way to the floor to start it. But, it does have a tachometer, so you do get some indication that the motor is running. 15 minutes later, Ashley, Gloria (my 7-year-old), and I went to the car. Radio blaring, heater fan on high, engine not running. It was funny. Fortunately the car's relatively new and it didn't drain the battery. I guess Ashley needs a little more training :).

Still here

I really don't have much new to report. I'm in the second week of treatment now, and am getting a taste of things to come. My innards are inflamed from the radiation, causing all sorts of uncomfortable and generally disgusting side effects. If you've ever eaten too many jalapeños and had them burn on the way out, that's how it feels pretty much constantly now. So I have new ointments and stuff to deal with that (falls into the "disgusting" category). My stomach's been bothering me lately, so I'm on Prilosec for that. It hurts to urinate, apparently the radiation affects the bladder, and thus the burning sensation. I'm on Alleve to take care of that. I'm going to need a pill box thingy to get all this stuff organized. One thing is for sure, though, I won't be forgetting the anti-nausea stuff. On the up side, I've lost 12 pounds since first diagnosis :)

That's enough whining and complaining for one day, I suppose. I'll try not to bitch too much, I've got it easy. There are tons of people out there fighting a tougher battle than what I'm faced with.

Lesson Learned

I will never forget to take my anti-nausea medicine again.
I will never forget to take my anti-nausea medicine again.
I will never forget to take my anti-nausea medicine again.
I will never forget to take my anti-nausea medicine again.
I will never forget to take my anti-nausea medicine again.

Last night sucked, but it was my own damned fault. I haven't had non-alcohol related dry heaves since high school. I was cursing my own stupidity from about 1:00 to 2:30. Pretty much recovered now (it's 9:30am). I was able to take the medicine and everything settled down ok. Modern medicine is a wonderful thing, as long as you follow the doctor's orders. :)

And it begins

It's been awhile since I've written, been lazy I guess. On Friday the 7th I got the port put in, it was easy. It was an all day affair, but most of it was sitting around waiting. Got all the info on the meds (again) from my nurse (Patty). She's very nice and explains everything well. My only issue so far is that everybody talks to me like I'm 12. It's a bit annoying. Well meaning, but annoying.

I spent the weekend cleaning out the garage, had to do something other than sitting around.

On Monday, I got the first chemo treatments and started on the 5-FU infusion. I have a fanny-pack that never leaves my side, even while sleeping. On Friday they'll come to the office to unhook it, so I'll have weekends off.

So far, I have suffered no side effects from the chemo.

I also started the radiation treatments on Monday. Every weekday I'll stop by on the way to the office and get zapped.

The game just started, but so far so good...