brettscancerjourney

Week 3 – 16 to 22 March 2009

16 March 2009

I had my weekly reviews teamed up with my radiation treatment again this week. First off was the chemo review and as per last week my blood results were normal. I have started to get "hotspots" in my mouth where I think ulcers are starting to form so I pointed this out to the doctor. He had a look in my mouth and confirmed that there were a few spots where it looked like this was happening. I just have to keep up with the mouthwashes and this should keep the ulcers under control.

After finishing with the Chemo review it was downstairs for the radiation review and this was a similar outcome, in that every thing is on track, no major side effects and I should keep on doing what I am doing. After finishing with the radiation review it was off to get zapped and then back to work.

17-22 March 2009

The rest of the week went off much as expected. I had radiation treatment from Tuesday to Thursday then a surprise on Thursday night when I went to get Friday's appointment time, I have a day off. They are doing some major maintainence on LA1 so no treatment for the day. I get a long week end before I start my second bout of chemo on Monday

I am starting to feel some tightness in the throat but I am not sure if this is from the radiation or after effects from the cold as the soreness is in behind my noise around the sinus/soft palate area.

I have also lost a little weight (about 500gms) over the week but once agian I don't know if this is from the treatment or if my cold has had some affect. I don't think I have been eating any less.

Week 4 – 23 to 29 March 2009

23-24 March 2009

Start of week 4 and this means the second round of chemo. It has been much the same as the first round, in that there has been a series of reviews (chemo, radiation, dietian and speech pathologist) and all went OK. It was then onto getting the chemo treatment and once again it would be split over two days as there were no beds available.

I am getting the same symptoms as the first round being fine on Monday, a little nauseous on Tuesday during and after the treatment.

I was fine on Tuesday night, well as fine as I expected to be.

As a matter of comparison below are the blood results from 23 Feb and 23 Mar

Haemoglobin 154 145
White Cell Count 5.50 3.6
Platelet Count Blood 229 245
Neutrophils Absolute 3.16 2.13
Creatinine Plasma V1 77 80

25-26 March 2009

Day 3 and 4 are carbon copies from Treatment 1. I was a little nauseous up until lunch time on the Wednesday then fatigue kicked in, and the nausea increased. I had a radiation treatment on Wednesday night, which in itself went well, but not feeling the best laying on the table was not pleasant. Thursday I planned to go to work but when I got up at my normal time I realised that this would be a mistake. The nausea had increased and I was not in very good shape. The tablets I have been given to prevent the symptoms doesn't seem to be working very well, which is something I will have to pass on to the doctors I have four different types to take, some with food some without and they only seem to last a few hours (if that) before the symptoms come back and I have to rest up until they pass, which is very annoying.

Hopefully I will be able to get to work on Friday.

27-29 March

Friday was once again a failure in getting to work. The nausea is getting worse and around lunchtime every thing I ate came back up to visit 30 minutes later. I can see that my weight review on Monday will not be a pleasant experience as at this rate I will lose plenty. My radiation treatment on Friday might went ok but once again the trip to and from was not a good one. Thanks to T & R for taking me and making sure I survived.

Saturday the hockey season started for the boys and I was determined to see it. Mistake yes – good game yes, did I suffer YES. After hockey it was home again and back to feeling sorry for myself. I have not been able to keep anything down so I am feeling even worse than I was previously (if that was possible).

Sunday was a repeat of Saturday with little kept down and feeling like absolute crap. The good thing is I only have a couple more weeks of treatment – the bad thing is I have to go through all this again in week seven after my last chemo treatment.

Week 5 – 30 March to 05 April 2009

30 March

Review day and I decided to straight to the hospital from home as opposed to my normally going to work first. It was going to be a busy morning with my chemo, radiation and diet/speech review all scheduled within 40 minutes of each other. My blood test was first up followed by my radiation treatment then pot-luck on which of the reviews would be ready for me first. As luck would have it I had the diet review first and my worst fears were confirmed when I had lost 5.5 kg over the weekend. There is not much that can be done as it all comes down to keeping food in my stomach.

When I went to the radiation review the doctor wanted to put me on a drip to get my fluid levels back up. I said I would come back after my chemo review and he seemed happy with this. The doctor also prescribed me some anti-nausea wafers to take before radiation treatment to try and ease some of the symptoms.

My chemo review was another chance to get more anti-nausea drugs and I was given more of the metoclopramide tablets. The doctor also suggested I go onto a drip for a couple of hours so I could regain some fluids.

To cut a long story short I spent from around mid-day until 5PM on a saline drip replacing fluids.

31 March

I was planning to go to work today but on rising I once again decided that it would not be a good idea. I decided to work from home.

01 April

Rejoice people – I made it to work. I will now see how I fair for the rest of the day.

02 & 03 April

I made it through the day at work on 01 April and both 02 and 03 April the days got better as my health improved. The minor blip of the nausea over last week end has gone and i am feeling much more human.

04 & 05 April

Well as the weekend arrived it was back to "normal" with chasing the boys around with hockey. They had games on Saturday and Sunday plus D had rep selection trials on sunady as well. it was a full week-end. I am feeling alot better as each day unfolds but I have in the back of my mind that in just over a week I will be doing my final chemo and everything will go belly up again.