Chemo Part II day 4: No Major Storms Yet

Its day 4 of my second to last chemo treatment. The new pump is working fine though with the delay I will have it on until Saturday morning. Between this treatment and the last treatment we have switched insurance providers. You can ask Sue just how much fun that has been. :-) NOT! One plus with the new provider is they use a different at home chemo pump provider. In this case they will come out to the house to remove the pump and PICC line. That saves me a trip in and makes it a bit easier.

So far the side effects this time are about the same as last time. The one change is a thicker mucus forming at the back of the throat. It is causing some discomfort when sleeping but no major nausea so far. Of course last time the side effects seemed to kick in during week number 2.

Next week I think I am will be going to see the ENT doctor to check on my throats progress and also some partial blockage on one side of my nose. I wonder if that is causing some of the mucus backup. One thing that is different this time is that what is building in my throat is a lot thicker and more like what you would get out of your nose. (Yep, it is that gross. :-)) I think that is also causing some of the swallowing problems. It like I can feel the water hitting the back of the throat and getting stopped or diffused by these big chunks of hardened mucus. That seems to trigger some of the gag reflex.

One of the consequences of the change in insurance is that the ENT doctor is no longer considered "in network" so that makes using his services a bit more difficult. I was scheduled to go this week but with the problems with the chemo pump and just being in the pump for the week we cancelled that appointment. Next week though it will make sense to see him. Its not that the medical oncologist are not keeping on top of things but at this point I think its time to get a second expert opinion. From my initial conversations with the ENT doctor when they first diagnosed the cancer I gathered he has seen more of this type of cancer so he may have some other ideas.

As I mentioned the lack of ability to drink for the last several months really gets to be a drag. Until you start to pay attention you don't appreciate just how many commercials there are for different drinks or restaurants on at late night. At times it can be a bit of a downer. hopefully this will start to change in the next few weeks. Even now I am watching a show called "How They Make It" The were showing how fire extinguishers are made when I started writing this but now has switched to a donut factory. Its too interesting to want to switch channels but on the other hand its a bit of torture to watch the donuts being made not knowing when my next opportunity to eat one will be. :-( (Yep... I am a glutton for punishment. Pun intended. :-)) As the immortal Homer Simpson would say... " mmmmm... donuts." or something like that. :-) OK... now the show is covering shock absorbers. Time to wrap up this post.

I can tell the throat is getting better. It used to be that a Fentanyl patch and some additional medication taken every 3 hours were required to handle the throat pain. Now the Fentanyl patch seems to handle it except for situations where I have thrown up. There will be some mouth sores from the F5U chemo that I am getting now but that will be different than the throat pain and the pills will help handle that.