brettscancerjourney

Week 6 – 06 to 12 April 2009

06 April 2009

Review time again.  The dietian was happy I had put on  weight since last week - about 1.5 kg.  Everything else diet wise I was doing correctly and to her surprise I was still eating normally, which at day 23 of 33 is not the usual outcome.

The radiation review went well and once again the doctor was surprised I was in no pain and still working.  She believes this will come to a crashing halt over the next period as the effects of the radiation build up.

The chemo review also went well and the only blip was my platelet count was down on where it should be but still within allowable ranges.  The result of this is I will bleed a little more than normal if I injure myself. 

07 - 09 April 2009

I have continued my radiation treatment and within myself am feeling reasonably fine.  I have the Easter long weekend coming up and must say I am looking forward to having a four day break from treatment.

With the end in sight I am starting to feel that I will be glad when it is all over.   

10 - 13 April 2009

Easter - no treatment.

I am still feeling good and not really looking forward to next Tuesday when I start my third round of Chemo.

Week 7 – 13 to 19 April 2009

 14 - 15 April 2009

As usual the normal round of reviews.  The radiation review went well with the doctor still amazed I haven't fallen in a heap.  I am still eating normal food and am in no pain with my throat.

My chemo review was also good and I am able to start next (and last) chemo round.  To my surprise there is a bed available this time around and I will do the whole treatment in the one day.  I will also have to stay overnight.

Up in the ward I was in with three other gentlemen, one was bed ridden and looked about 80.  He was being fed by a tube and his wife and son (I assume) were fussing around him.  The second gentleman was about 60ish and spent most of his time either on the phone or asleep.  The final inmate turned up about an hour after I did and spent most of his time trying to let everybody know how important he was.

My treatment went well with the normal saline solution going through first then instead of splitting the dose of Cisplaten they gave me the the full dose in one go over a couple of hours.  Then it was the normal "flushing of my system with saline.

I was to be on the saline until the next morning and the nurses needed to monitor my fluid input and output to ensure my kidneys were still functioning normally.

I may have mentioned this before but when you have Cisplaten (or any chemo drug) your bodily fluids become toxic for a period afterwoods.  With this in mind every time the nurses needed to monitor my fluid output they needed to "dress-up" in mask, gloves and gown to empty the urine bottle.

At about 2am I was awoken by lights in the main foyer area and the sound of two nurses talking.  It seems one of the nurses had spilt my neibours fluid bottle when she was emptying it and we now had a "toxic spill" to contend with.  It took them about an hour to clean up the area and the smell of anteseptic was very strong.

The rest of the night was as equally bad as the old man on the feeding tube keep "choking" as he slide down in his bed (due to cutting of his airway) and the nurses would have to drag him back up into the correct position.  The important man in the next bed took these opportunities to remind the nurses how important he was and that he could get them fired if they didn't treat him well.  The other bloke either slept (and snored) or took the opportunity of having the lights on to make a call.  Overall I didn't get much sleep.

I was discharged from the ward about 10am and went straight down to the Raditaion treatment area to see if I could slip in early for treatment,(my orignal appointment was for 2020 that night). I could get in and was out of the hospital on my way home by 1020.

16 - 19 April 2009

The nausea and general fatigue I experienced after my second round chemo is back again and all I want to do is curl up and sleep.  I am sure I will be losing more weight which I know the Dietian will not like but at the moment I just don't want to eat.  Food and especially fluids just don't taste very nice and I start to retch every time I have something.  I will survive though as I only have three more radiation treatments to go next week (techically week 8 of a 7 week program but with starting treament midweek and all the public holidays with Easter etc it has pushed me into another week).

The weekend was much worse as my nausea increased but I still managed to get the boys to hockey and I took on the role of Manager for one of the Brisbane rep sides in hockey.