Update on Cancer Journey


It has been quite a while since I posted anything about my cancer journey here on this blog. So, here is an update.

Basically, things have been going relatively smoothly on the new protocol and by using the fasting regimen for the days leading up to my treatment. I have jumped around from Monday infusions to Tuesday infusions and back to Monday infusions. I have mostly stayed on the every two week schedule.

Generally, I have settled into some predicable side effects. On the current protocol, I get an infusion on Monday which lasts for about 3-4 hours at the hospital. At the end of that infusion, the nurse connects me to a portable pump that continues to infuse a chemo medicine for the next 44 hours. I go back on Wednesday to have the pump disconnected and usually get an infusion of fluids which seems to help with any dehydration issues, although those have been less since I tend to eat and drink more easily on this protocol. Especially compared to the pill protocol I was on for the first cycle in October. I barely ate anything for two weeks dealing with the side effects of that protocol.

Usually on Wednesday or Thursday, I feel tired enough to take a nap after I pick up the kids from school. I experience some neuropathy, that hot stinging feeling in the extremities when you touch something cold, early in the cycle but it mostly subsides early in the second week. Despite my size, I have never been a big eater so eating three full meal days for me is rare. Now, with part of my colon gone or some kind of chemo effect, if I eat two full meal days, I usually feel some gastrointestinal side effects like gas or bloating. So, I try to monitor that a little more closely. I think some of the GI side effects happen anyways as I move through the two week cycle but I can definitely contribute to it if I eat too much. The only other side effect I have experienced is that my hair is finer and more frizzy, especially at the ends in the back. It has thinned out a bit over all and there are some places, like under my arms, where it seems to have disappeared. I’ve always had pretty fine hair anyhow and I’ve never been especially hairy anyways. So, it is just a little bit more markedly so. But I’m not balding. I am noticing that I don’t think I’ll need to get a haircut for a while because, aside from the normal winter slowdown, my hair just hasn’t gotten as long as it normally would.

I am currently at the end of a three week cycle where I took an extra week off before doing my next treatment. I have done this for two cycles in a row. The first time I added a week off was because my platelets, which had been hovering just below normal for a few cycles in a row, dropped to a level that my doctor was uncomfortable with. When I came back an extra week later, the platelets had recovered well into the normal range. This cycle, I added a week off for two reasons. First of all, Christine and I were getting to have a get away weekend in the mountains and I didn’t want to be fasting while we were away. Secondly, I was hoping to get my platelets into the high normal range so that I could finish the final four treatments without any further interruptions. As it happened, my white blood cells were hovering at the low end of normal so my doctor was going to suggest another extra week off anyhow.

From here on out, my hope is to stay on the two week cycle. I am hopeful that my platelets will be in the high normal range and my white blood cells will be a little more in the middle of normal. I have completed 8 treatments and, if I can do these final four without adding anymore extra weeks off, I will get my last chemo treatment on April 20th.

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