Update on Chemo III: Still a Tropical Storm

This chemo treatment seems to have more of an impact than the second one did. Its not as bad as the first one but I am experiencing fatigue today and that is something I haven't seen in awhile. I am also having the same mucus problem that caused me concern a few weeks ago. So far it is being managed but in general it is uncomfortable and does make it difficult to sleep. Hopefully as I get another week between myself and the chemo treatment this will start to abate. Also at that point I should start to recover from some of the radiation effects.

Chemo III Update and Last Radiation Treatment

Final Radiation Treatment!

Yesterday was my last radiation treatment. 35 out of 35 completed right on schedule. Yippee! After the treatment they gave me the mask to take home as a souvenir along with a certificate showing I completed treatment. I have to say again that everyone at the radiation facility were great to work with. Their positive attitudes and the overall environment of the place definitely helped me during the treatments. According to the radiation oncologist I will experience some of the incremental negative impact of the radiation for the next week or so. That is due to the lag time between treatment and the impact hitting me. After that I should start to feel better. I won't miss going in for the daily treatments but I will miss the people at the radiation medicine center.

I think I should start to see some improvement soon. I know that when I had 2 days off on the weekends Sundays were generally good days. Also I don't need to work the timing of the lotion for my neck or feedings around the radiation appointments. BTW on that note I can't imagine having to coordinate all of this if I had to drive up to some place that was an hour and a half away for treatments.

Chemo III Update: Not A Hurricane, More Like A Tropical Storm

Yesterday was a bit rough regarding the chemo. Nothing like the first time but I did have a persistent indigestion. Enough so that I scaled back the amount of food at each feedings and increased the number of feedings during the day. I think part of the indigestion comes from the support drugs that you get put on for the 3 days after chemo. I am finished with those now so hopefully today will be a better day. All I ended up doing yesterday was feedings and then manage my body position in between feedings. I think I mentioned that right after a feeding I feel best if I sit back at a reclined angle. That was definitely true for yesterday. Even standing upright let alone leaning over to wash hands or use a keyboard would cause problems. Fortunately I was able to keep everything down and was able to get in all the various drugs and such that were required. Just doing so became a full time occupation.

Whats Up Next

The next several days are clear of any appointments. I have to have some blood work done after Christmas and then meet with the medical oncologist to go over the next steps for the follow up chemo treatments. Based on what the radiation oncologist has said I have responded very well to the radiation treatments. I will be interested to get the medical oncologist opinion on how the treatments went and the what the rest of the game plan is when we meet next week.

Chemo III: Day 2 Report

Once again not much to report today and that is good news. I had my 34th radiation treatment today and now there is only one more to go. So far my condition at this point in the treatment process is better than I had thought it would be. After the second chemo treatment when I was having a problem keeping food down I imagined I would be a lot worse at this point. Instead the only major side effect that has been added on with the third chemo treatment is tiredness. I found that I am sleeping a lot more on day 2. Looking back at my notes from the first two treatments I was also sleeping a lot more in the days following treatment as well. I don't think I noticed it as much because so many other side effect were going on. This time around I have the feedings under control, I actually gained a pound over the last week. I also have the mucus discharge managed. lastly the radiation plan was changed for the last 8 treatments and that has allowed some parts to start to recover.

So far so good for chemo III. One of the benefits of my last radiation treatment being tomorrow is that I don't need to take the appointment time into consideration when applying ointment to the rashes on my neck or when I do the feedings. As a rule I can't put anything on my neck 4 hours prior to treatment. When they are schedule for the morning this means that I don't but anything on at all in the morning. Also I try to schedule the feedings so that they are at least one and a half hours prior to treatment just so things settle before treatment. I also don't want it to be too long between feedings so that my pain meds wear off while I am there. After tomorrow I won't have to take that into consideration. Hopefully the tiredness will follow the same pattern as the previous two chemo treatments and subside after day 3. Who knows I may actually start to get back to my normal energy level. It will still take some time for my voice, throat and taste buds to recover and of course there are the 3 follow up chemo treatments but after tomorrow the worst should be over. Yippee!

Chemo III Day One Report

So far there isn't much to report about day 1 and that is good news. I arrived at the hospital around 8:00 AM and was put into a separate room for this chemo treatment. No... its not that I am such a difficult patient they wanted isolate me. :-) The setup at the hospital is that they have a few chemo chairs that are separated by privacy screens and actually given a good amount of space. They also all have TVs and of course the WiFi connection. In addition to those areas they have a room off of the chemo area that can be used to put a bed in if needed for patients that may require a bed or additional procedures. I also think I saw a prisoner being treated in there once. Today there wasn't any situations that required that room and since I was probably going to be there all day they gave it to me. It was nice because I was able to spread out my stuff and not have to keep getting in and out of the chair to get it. I also have to say that the people at the hospital were very nice and accommodating as always. They were right there with me hoping for the correct blood count so the treatment could go ahead. That was nice because I really was concerned about not being able to go ahead today.

I seem to be bringing more and more stuff with me to these appointments. Today I had my normal "cancer bag" stuff that includes all my paperwork since the start, notes and prescription info along with the log of my feedings and drug usage. Then because I was going to be there all day I had to bring my feeding stuff with me and that includes the drugs I needed to take during the day, the plastic syringe that I use to set up the feedings and a few other miscellaneous items.

Then on the electronics side I have my notebook computer and today I brought my iPod Touch that I used for the first posting from the hospital. This lets me get some work done while I am there even if it is just reading up on some technology articles.

The treatment pretty much went off with out a hitch. There was one point that I did have the dry heaves during the day but I thing that was from swallowing too much mucus. My throat has started to feel a bit better or at least to the point where I can talk more than one word answers if I use the spray bottle to keep my mouth moist. I think I over did it in the morning because not much later I had the dry heaves. Lasted about 5 minute and then I was fine. Its the same thing that occasional happens at night when I get up and the mucus all rushes down the back of my throat. Aside from that everything went well and I was ready to head back home at 3 in the afternoon. One effect that did hit me was tiredness. I napped a bit when I got back home and then went to sleep around 9:00. I don't normally set an alarm for the meds because as a rule I never sleep more than a few hours without waking up. In this case I slept straight through to 3 in the morning. Needless to say I will have to catch up on some feedings on Tuesday to make up for it. Still it felt nice to sleep that long.

Everything else is going fine. I am curious to see what the impact of this chemo will be. The first one was the worst. Part of that was due to the abdominal pain caused by constipation on the day of chemo and part of it was due to the shifting pressure in the sinus region as the chemo and radiation started to do their stuff. Also it took about a week to get dialed in on the nausea medicine. With the second chemo I was still in the first week of using the feeding tube and there were some adjustment issues to having the all liquid diet along with getting enough feedings. Still the impact wasn't too bad. With this treatment I have the feeding tube stuff dialed in, the pain and nausea medicine is all set and now the radiation treatment is actually different. Also there are only two radiation treatments left. (Big time Yippee! on that one) So for most of the recovery time for time for this chemo I will not be getting radiation treatment. Taken all together I am hoping that this chemo treatment will have the least amount of impact.

One last thing to note is that fatigue as a side effect hasn't really come back since the first treatment. I do get tired but then I just sleep. Fatigue was feeling tired but not being able to sleep. Hopefully the trend will continue and fatigue will stay away this time.

BTW did I mention that there are only two more radiation treatments left to go? Yippee!

Chemo III is a go!

I am writing from the hospital and the blood work just came back with good results. My white count is in the acceptable range so chemo is on for today. Yippee!!

Note: I am not looking forward to the chemo but it is a major milestone. Also just a FYI this blog post was created using the wifi access and web browser on the Apple iTouch. It works pretty well as a portable web browser and I get to listen to music while surfing. :-)

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.