Now what?

Nothing new to report as far as the session itself is concerned. They were a couple of hours late. I am not sure how this process works. They were late because the drugs were late in coming up from the pharmacy.

They knew I was coming. We had an appointment and everything. I have not missed one yet. Always on time. Predictable. And yet, here I was waiting a couple of hours for the drugs to come up. My blood count stood at 6.6. I was hoping for it to be higher given I had just come off a Neulasta week. Beggars can’t be choosers. Just go with the flow.

All is not lost. We are ushered in to the daycare chairs. I was offered a bed or a chair. Much prefer the patter. New nurse, again. They connect you to the saline solution to flush the system and make sure you have enough liquids in you. This is a blessing on hot days when you dehydrate quicker than you can possibly imagine.

Janet drove me in. She has the week off and was going to see her father after dropping me off. The Shriners are in town, and have blocked road access tot he hospital. I had to walk a couple of blocks to get to the hospital, through the Shriners who were almost ready for the parade. They do a lot of good work, but look to me like a bunch of overweight white men well past their prime. I wonder what their future is, and who will take over their good deeds.

The saline solution was good for me given the couple of blocks walking through our extreme heat. Really hot, over C30degrees. Did not cool at nights either staying well in the upper twenties all week. The house is still cool, but I dehydrate very quickly. No amount of water seems to do the job.

Janet came to pick me up around 5PM. A number of patients kept asking for the score in the FIFA game. The atmosphere in the daycare was light. I noticed more young patients than before. Does not bode well for the future. There appeared to be fewer patients as well. Not sure why. As I said way up above, not sure how their system is set up, even after being in it for almost a year.

The Chemo week itself has been more interesting than usual. My reactions have been the same. Fatigue mostly, though less than usual in its intensity. What has caught me by surprise this week is the nature of the fatigue. I wonder if it has to do with the heat. I seem to be able to go on for while, than suddenly collapse. A couple of hours of sleep and I am back on my feet, only to repeat the process. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to the fatigue. I am not extending myself any more than I have in the past. The sudden downturn is what is confusing me. We will see if this repeat in the next Chemo session due in 10 days.

I am now waiting for Judith and Arlin to come over for coffee at the Rooster. Janet has gone to a friends farm for the weekend. I insisted she go. Will do her good to be out of town and away from me, even if it is for a couple of nights. She should come back well rested.

Thanks for being there.

I am late, so very late in keeping this blog up to date. I will make this post an update of two weeks.

You have all read the Euphoria piece in which the cancer cells appear to be retreating before the shock and awe that is chemo. The spell of the good news kept me going for quite a while. The day of reckoning came when we met the oncologist, Dr. Hedley.

Ever the realist, the good doctor is not overwhelmed by the news. He tempered our expectations. One CT-Scan does not a trend make. Don’t get over excited. He was expecting positive results, maybe not as positive as the ones we got, but this is not a time for partying. This is Euphoria-reigned in.

Dr. Hedley believes that the chemo will run its course shrinking the tumours. There will come a time, however, when the tumours stop responding. We will take a break from chemo at that point and monitor the tumours on an on-going basis. Chemo will resume when the tumours decide to grow again. This will go on, basically, for the rest of my life, as long as it may be. We asked about a liver operation. The good doctor felt that the operation is unwarranted since it would be quite harsh and hard on me.

This begs the question of the severity of the operation. I just went through an 8 hour operation, and he thinks the liver operation will be severe? How bad is this operation?

It took a while for reality to set in. As things go, this is not so bad. My reaction to chemo treatments has been a bit bizarre to say the least. I have had a few side effects, a lowered white blood cell count, fatigue, and the discoloration of the skin on my hands making it look as if I need to wash them, and nose bleeds due to low platelet counts. . The white blood cell count is reversed by Neulasta. Fatigue by sleep. The discoloration by gloves. No, not really, I am not wearing gloves to cover them. They are what they are.

If this is the worst chemo can do to me, I am willing to take the chemo treatments whenever required. Chemo taken in short bursts will negate the requirement for Neulasta. That is a plus. I told them to put a zipper in when going into the first surgery. No idea why they did not listen to me.

The rest of the week went very well.  I am showing few signs of being on chemo. My appetite is fine, thank you very much. If things keep going this way, I may have to go on a diet. I still have a lot of my hair, though admittedly thinned out. Turns out I have SO MUCH hair that losing a bit of it puts me on a par with a lot of other people.  No sense going for a hair cut since it is not growing. I have to shave every two to three days instead of every day. What a relief that is. Seriously.

Fetneh came to visit. Always a pleasure. We talked, we laughed, we shopped. Tool her a high end furniture store, just for fun. No shopping trip would be complete without some fashion adventures. Off we went to Yorkdale mall. The precedent has been set. We will have to take her to a new Toronto experience every time she comes here.

Some of my days have been extremely productive. Others have been less so. The fatigue is sometimes overwhelming. I am a bit confused by all this and attempting to reason things out. I might be overdoing things when I am feeling strong and mighty and paying the price the next day. Not sure. I spent Saturday almost entirely sleeping. Friday, on the other hand was a very good day. The answers will come in due course.

I am now preparing myself for chemo week. If all goes according to plan, I should sleep through this session. Next CT-Scan is on March 8 when we will have a better idea of what is going on.

Thank you for being there, visiting, writing, commenting, praying.

© 2010 I Have Cancer Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha