Flying Sucks

Let me just say, flying when you have digestive issues is a huge hassle. I took the 6:50am flight from Dayton to Philly this morning. However, ever since the operation that removed 2/3 of my rectum, I've had a constant problem with regularity. The last time I was "regular" was after the chemo/radiation ending in January, and the surgery was done in March. Since then I cycle through constant bouts of diahrea followed by constipation. Travelling would be ok in a constipation phase, but I nearly missed my plane this morning due to a very necessary bathroom stop.

Here's another very annoying thing: I've been telling my doctor about the whole diahrea thing for months. On Friday, he said, "oh that's normal for people who have a portion of their colon removed. Try this...". He could've let me in on the little secret 4 months ago. Basically, it looks like I'll be taking Metamucil twice a day for the rest of my life. If it stops the insanity, I'm all for it, it could be worse.

Another very annoying thing: Apparently they've been testing my "cancer markers" every time they draw blood, which is with every treatment. Nobody has bothered to tell me the results or that they were even doing it. My nurse happened to mention it at my last treatment, so of course I got all worked up about it. I'm thinking "what if there's more cancer?", "what do they do if the markers are high? Do I have to do a lot of testing?". So at my doctor's appointment on Friday, he says, "Oh yeah, the markers are at 0.6, we don't worry about it unless it's over 2.5. We test them every time". It would have been good if he'd have let me in on that little bit of information. By the way, 0.6 is considered "normal". People who've never had cancer will register some level of markers.

75% DONE

Okay, so it's been over a month since my last blog. Shoot me. Please.

I got my 9th treatment yesterday and things are going about normal. Can't touch anything cool or my hands go all tingly. Same with my lips and tongue. Kinda funny, really. If I take a drink of something cold, my tongue goes numb and I sound drunk.

All in all things are going fine. They took a blood sample yesterday to check for cancer markers. I should have the results when I visit my oncologist on Friday.

Oh, and did you hear the latest on our wonderful new administration? They are going to cut Medicair payments to oncologists and cardiologists by some $1.4 billion. I'm so thankful I'm going through all this while I'm still allowed by Big Brother to have private insurance.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20090828/pl_bloomberg/arqnpw9zinj4_1

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.