7 down, 5 to go

This may be my first post on the same day as treatment. I just wanted to document the details of how it feels, should anyone be interested.

• I'm very light-headed, similar to what you feel when you have the flu, or a really bad hangover.
• My stomach just feels wierd. I'm pretty sure it's nausea dulled by the massive amounts of anti-nausea meds in my system. It's that "I think I may have to puke later" feeling.
• Eating does not seem to affect my stomach. I had a salad for lunch, and just ate a couple pieces of fruit, the stomach is no better, no worse.
• The palms of my hands are numb off and on.
• I'm getting random shooting pains in my torso, mostly in the rib cage, sometimes the groin, which is a load of fun.
• Cold sensitivity is here, but not as severe as it has been in the past. Hurts a bit to grab anything in the refrigerator, but room temperature stuff doesn't seem to bother me. At it's worst, I couldn't even touch a doorknob in an air conditioned room without my fingers tingling.

Looks like I may be getting a treatment off. There is a 50/50 shot that I'll be spending a couple weeks on a business trip in August. I could use the break; four weeks without feeling like this.

New Suit

Had to buy a new suit today. My old suit is way too big, even across the shoulders. I never knew you lost weight in your shoulders. Oh well. Maybe Anthem will cover part of the cost? I seriously doubt it. I have to fly to Phoenix on the 26th for big meeting, pitching our services to a very large company, thus the new suit. I'm going to have to delay my next chemo treatment to go, but this is a meeting I can't miss.

It's Saturday and I'm feeling better, pretty typical of the treatment cycles. The one thing that keeps getting worse is my energy level, though. I can't seem to get motivated to do much of anything. I'm just tired all the time, and I seem to be moving pretty slowly these days. I feel OLD. After all this crap is done, I'm going to get in decent shape and stay there.

Half Way

Had the 6th of 12 treatments on Monday. As usual it made me sick for 3 days. I wound up having to leave work early on Wednesday. I slept all afternoon and most of the evening, but feel much better now. Nothing new or interesting to report, just muddling through. I haven't lost any more weight, so I think I've pretty much bottomed out at around 175 pounds. That's about 55 pounds less than when all this started. Weight I should have lost a long time ago.

5 down 7 to go

Had chemo again on Monday. This week has been rough. VERY nauseous every day. Even today, on Thursday, I'm a bit queezy. I've never had it last this long after treatment, but at least I haven't actually thrown up. Just feel like it most of the time. I also have "chemo brain" pretty strong, too. This is that balloon headed feeling you get when you've got the flu. Standing up or moving suddenly makes you dizzy.

On the up side, I'm almost half way through. I've stopped losing weight, hovering around 175-180, which is a good weight for me. The cold sensitivity hasn't been too bad this time.

Still hanging in there...

Another Lovely Monday

Got treatment today. I ran into a bit of a complication, about 80% of the way through the chemo IV, I experienced pretty severe kidney pain. We had to stop treatment, give me a steroid IV and a Benedryl IV. The pain went away eventually and they finished the chemo. It's almost 8pm now and the pain hasn't returned, so hopefully it was just a one-time thing.

I'm able to function a little bit tonight, maybe I'm getting used to this stuff. Or maybe the extra steroid and Benedryl are helping still. I don't really care, honestly, as long as I'm not lying on the couch bitching and moaning.

We'll see how tomorrow goes, I'll work from home just in case there are issues, but based on how I fee now, I should be ok.

Looking up

I know it's been awhile, sorry.

I had my 3rd treatement last Monday, with the new anti-nausea meds. It went much better, no vomiting. I was still out for two days, but it was much easier. I also bounced back much faster than the previous treatment. So, spirits are much better, I can deal with this stuff.

This treatment went sort of like this:
Monday: Hell. Chemo all morning, lying on the couch trying (successfully) not to throw up all afternoon/evening. Cold sensitivity, peripheral neuropathy side effects hit full force. Drinking a room temperature glass of water makes my mouth numb, I sound drunk.
Tuesday: Yuck. Work a little from home, but mostly still lying on the couch. Feel much better by evening. Side effects still in full effect.
Wednesday: Back at work, actually productive and able to focus. Still a little sick. Can drink room temperature water and only my tongue goes numb. An improvement.
Thursday/Friday: Side effects continue to wane, able to work and function just fine.
Saturday: Slept all afternoon, like 4 hours. Guess it must have been catch-up sleep.
Sunday: Today, I'm fine. Just being lazy this morning working on the computer.

Looking forward to a symptom-free week :)

Worst Monday Ever

Yesterday was round 2 of the post-operative chemo regimen. It starts with a 15-minute IV of anti-nausea medicine, followed by 2 hours of olaxiplatin. After that's done, they give me a shot of 5FU, then hook up the continuous feed pump of 5FU. The pump runs 46 hours.

I knew I was in trouble when I started feeling a bit queezy about halfway through the olaxiplatin. I didn't think much about it, because the only time I had ever thrown up was 2-3 days after the IV, when the anti-nausea IV wore off. Anyway, when I was finished, I got in my car and started heading into the office, like normal. It wasn't long before I knew I was going to be sick. The problem is, the office is only 10 minutes from the doctor's office, home is 40. So I decided to go ahead to the office. I made it to the parking lot, got out of the car, and proceeded to get sick in the grass. After awhile, I started feeling a little better, so I decided to head in to my office. I figured if I could just sit quietly for a bit I'd be ok. Boy was I wrong. For the next hour or so I was throwing up in my trash can. I tried to get some anit-nausea medicine in me, but it's hard when you can't keep anything down. Eventually a couple coworkers drove me home, for which I am very grateful.

Once I got home, things seemed to settle down. I was able to get some Kitryl in me, which is the best anti-nausea medicine ever. Of course, at $60 per pill it ought to be. The nurse at the doctor's office was kind enough to get me some samples. I think I'm going to request a prescription, as I have 10 more of these Mondays to endure.

All evening I basically layed on the couch trying not to move. At night I didn't sleep very well. I kept waking up. This was the case last time too, so I'm sure it has something to do with the chemo. Who knows, the list of possible side effects from olaxiplatin and 5FU is pretty long.

Today, I feel much better. The Kitryl is working. I just had a bowl of chicken soup, first thing I've eaten since breakfast yesterday. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to return to work tomorrow.