Cycle 2 Treatment 2

Well I am handling the 2nd cycle much better than the first. I don't come home on Thursday afternoon and pass out until Monday morning anymore. I'm still not very active, but at least I'm awake!!



I am a little bummed out this week. For starters, before diagnosis I get stuck with the most annoying symptom, extreme all over body itching instead of the most common, dramatic 20-30 pound weight loss (which would have been nice). Luckily I'm not itching anymore and all of the scratches have healed without any scarring. Then when I was diagnosed, I tried to think of the positive, CHEMO DIET!! Finally, I would be able to shed these last pesky 15 pounds that have hung on for dear life since I worked so hard to loose 50 last year. Unfortunately, the steroids that I have to take to combat nausea and keep my immune system up have the opposite effect. I'm up 10 pounds! Geesh, can't catch a break. I thought I would at least have a chance to evict my 'monthly visitor' permanently, but since the treatment is no longer MOPP, but ABVD the chances of that are less than 10%. The old treatment guaranteed sterililty in men and gave women a 50% chance at early menopause. I suppose that's a good thing overall for the masses, but I would appreciate having one side effect or symptom that can be a positive instead of annoying. Oh well, at least I don't have the nausea and vomiting. I just have to deal with jaw pain, headaches and insomnia.

Nothing big...

On Friday I was supposed to be at work at 8:30. Unfortunately, I think I turned off my alarm in my sleep and didn't wake up until Noon! Oh well! I got to work and everyone just laughed and said I must of needed the rest, all 14 hours of it. I don't think my boss even noticed I wasn't there until I called him at 12:15 and told I'd be there shortly. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I like to think that it means I do my job so well that I have anticipated every need and handled all requests so proficiently there's never a need to come see me!



One new chemo development is that it's drying my body out so much I have an almost constant nosebleed from dry sinuses. Considering Ragweed is high right now and I'm sniffling all the time it's hard to believe, but I'm cutting back on the Allegra to try and combat the bleeding.



One good thing is that my headache finally went away.

OOOWWWWW!

Today is pretty bad. I've had a headache for 24 hours and it will not go away. It gets a little better for a while, then comes back with a vengeance. I've taken 2 Tylenol 3 with codeine and 2 Vicodin with little relief. They usually only last until about Thursday, so 2 more days to go!

Cycle 2 Treatment 1

I just started my 2nd cycle of Chemo and I am amazed at how well I am handling this weeks treatment. I haven't stayed in bed waiting for Monday morning to roll around (my treatments are on Thursday). We went out for Chinese today, I haven't felt any nausea or pain yet really. My tongue is starting too tingle so the jaw pain and mouth sensitivity will probably hit by tomorrow. My tongue feels like it would if you burned your tongue on pizza yesterday at lunch, but it lasts for a week or so. It's an annoyance, but manageable.

Chemo, Chemo and more Chemo

Well tomorrow is Chemo day. The only thing that really sucks about Chemo for me is that afterward I have quite a bit of jaw and mouth pain which also causes headaches. It takes about a week or so for this to go away and as soon as it does, bingo, it's time for chemo again! Oh well, I really can't complain because in the grand scheme of things I am getting off pretty easy. When you hear what other people go through while being treated for cancer I am only having mild discomfort by comparison.



I have a wonderful boss, who actually makes me feel guilty for coming into work sometimes so staying home and leaving early is not a problem. He lets me come and go as desired and everyone else at work is extremely supportive. They gave me a brand new IBM Thinkpad so I could stay home and work if I wanted to without coming into the office. My co-workers really have helped me maintain a sense of normalcy. Of course, my bank account does miss my working 40 hour weeks! I only work about 25 right now.

Happy Birthday!!

Todays Jerry's birthday. We went out for lunch and are trying to figure out what else to do today. So far we haven't come up with anything.

Everything's A OK

So far so good. Had a CBC today and my red cells and white cells are all within normal range, so no more shots for now and we are go for Chemo again next Thursday. The side effects have been prety mild so far. I get headaches in the afternoons usually sometime after 1:00 pm, but that's a small price to pay compared to what some folks go through on Chemo.



Jerry's Birthday is Saturday so we're going to dinner at Pappadeux. Thank God! I need an evening out. I'm tired of going from home to work to bed every day.



I ordered Adobe Photoshop yesterday, so hopefully over the weekend we'll be able to finish up the pictures.