Chemo No. 3 Take 2

Chemo treatment number 3 is scheduled for tomorrow. Of course this will depend upon my blood counts. Hopefully they have recovered enough so that I will be able to take treatment number 3. This is the last of the major chemo treatments. There are still 3 more of the follow up treatments but the impact of those is supposed to be less. I am not looking forward to this last major treatment but I do want to get it out of the way.

At the same time only 3 more radiation treatments left to go. I don't think I have mentioned this before but during radiation treatments I can bring my own CD to play. No offense on the music track they run at the hospital but I definitely prefer bringing my own music. On Wednesday I will be finished with radiation. Yippee! With radiation treatments the weeks start off OK but by the time Thursday and Friday roll around I am just beat. Then I have Saturday and Sunday off and in general Sundays are not that bad. Of course come Monday its back to the radiation again. This week is different. Only 3 treatments and then plenty of days to recover. I have never had 3 days off in a row so I can't imagine what next weekend will be like. Now the chemo will help compensate for the lack of radiation but even with that I should start getting a bit better each day after the radiation treatments are completed.

If I can complete the chemo on Monday then by Wednesday of this week I will be finished with the major portion of the treatment plan. That will be quite a milestone accomplished. Also it means I can slowly start to get better. A major portion of cancer treatment is trying to keep the patient healthy while they kill the cancer. Now that I am almost through the worst I can look forward to the recover time. Hopefully 6-8 weeks from now my throat will have recovered from the radiation treatments.

Two new side effects that I am experiencing this week is tiredness from the low blood counts and radiation burns on my neck from the treatments. The burns on my neck are like getting a very severe sunburn where it starts to blister. This is one of the cumulative effects of the radiation treatment. With the change in treatment plans this last week the impact on the front of my neck has been reduced but the sides and back of the neck have continued to get worse. They have me using a prescription anti biotic cream that is used for second and third degree burns or getting skin grafts from skin burns. The plus side is that there are only 3 more treatments left and then those areas can start to heal. Right now the goal is to just manage the burns and try to prevent them from getting infected.