CHEMO DAY #6


Friday's chemo day was the latest appointment I've had yet. I was scheduled for and got in at 11:30. It was nice to sleep in a bit. The best part now is they have taken the 6-8hr insertion time down to about 4 hrs. Barely had time for my benadryl nap. Colleen still had time to pick up my usuall chicken roti lunch....yyuummm!!!!  Even with traffic we were back home by 5:30pm. After it all, it was a bit of a slow day. Just chillin'. All is still good and now seems to be a peice of cake. It's beginning to hurt more and more when the do the needles on Wed. and the intravenious on Fri. Not sure if the veins are swiss cheese or what, but man, it hurts. Oh well, here's to only 2 more.
blog soon,

vic

Did the usual pre-check yesterday with the doc. All is good other than my red cells are getting smaller. As I mentioned before, the levels are good but they are getting smaller ever so slowly. This is why I feel so tired all the time. With yesterdays blood check, they have concluded that I am iron deficient. Again, explains the rapid hair loss. They have put me on some pills and once the chemo is done I will see a specialist tosee what is wrong with me now. Everything is still a go for tomorrow's #6 treatment.
blog soon,

vic

CHEMO DAY #5


Another chemo day has come and gone. All feels really good. The benadryl hit me like a ton of bricks this time. I was out within an hour. Wasn't out for long so I had some good time to hang and chat with Colleen. What a girl...took time out of her busy schedule to come down to chemo and make sure her baby is ok. Gotta love her. Even on her anniversary no less. Hey, at least we got to spend the day together. How many couples can say they spent their anniversary in the chemo ward of PMH....scratch #45 off the bucket list. Hope I'm more awake for the weekend. Ben has a bunch of hockey games and our big Thanksgiving dinner Sunday. Should be fun. All the best to everyone. Blog soon.

Not sure if anyone has noticed, but every week I do my chemo, I wear a different superhero t-shirt. I feel like i'm a cast member of the Big Bang Theory...LOL... It all started on the first day when Colleen bought me a Avengers shirt and I wore it. I didn't get a picture that first day......didn't think of it till I got home. But ever since Colleen always makes it a priority to find a new so I can wear it on my special day. As I said before, gotta love her.

vic

Had the usual pre-chemo check up. All is still a go for tomorrow. I had a nasty cold last week that kicked me around 3 ways til sunday. Thanks god it's gone so I won't have to miss a treatment. My hemoglobin is about the same as 3 weeks ago. Not a bad thing but they are concerned that my blood cells are getting smaller. This could mean an iron deficiency..........ha, I knew it !!!.. hence the hair loss. They're not to worried this time around but will do some different blood work before my next session and see whats up. Bring on #5.

outta nowhere.... Steve Jobs....I thought he was looking better. Sad day.

It's been a week since the chemo. Feelin' pretty good other than the numbness in my fingers. Hasn't hit my toes yet as they say it might. It's a very weird feeling. Little things like reading the paper or a magazine become a difficult to do. Turning the pages can be frustrating. Hell, even typing is starting to suck. But I sure do love trying to update this blog as much as I can. It's my online diary. Enough complaining, things are good. No much to say. Waiting for the next one on Oct 7th.

vic

CHEMO DAY #4


Chemo day #4 has come and gone. Nothing exciting to tell because everything went well. I was a little freaked out waiting in the waiting room watching all my past (good) nurse's come out and get a different person for their treatment. Then my name was called . . . finally,  my nurse . . . the one who accidentally upped my dose the first time and put me into shock. The one who wanted to take a boring day and make it exciting. The same one who wanted to cheat death with my body..... "Hi, I'm Maggie. I will be your nurse today". No shit, I know who you are. If anything happens I will haunt you for the rest of my unearthly life.
That aside, she was great and the day was perfect. Home now and starting to get very drowsy. Hope to fall asleep soon.

PS. those of you who thought that I wouldn't be able to get my copy of STAR WARS on blu-ray because it's chemo day. No worries, I was lucky to find a Best Buy very close to Princess Margaret and as I dozed off to la-la land ( lovin' the benadryl ) Colleen ran through downtown traffic to pick up my copy. . . All is good.

vic

Had my usual pre-chemo appointment with my doc yesterday. They can believe how well I'm responding to the chemo. The results from my CT scan were amazing. All of my nodes that were enlarged have gotten smaller..... like way smaller. One that was 14.8 cm is now 5.5 cm. Another that was 2.7 x 1.2 cm is now 1.1 x 0.9 cm. Too many to list but great to hear. My liver is now 21.2 cm compared to 28 cm on my previous scan. They still consider it enlarged but it's progressing well.
All my blood levels are getting better as well. Finally broke 100 again with my hemoglobin. Currently at 108. Hasn't been this high since April of this year. So the chemo is doing the trick.

Now, the only down side to all this good news is that I will continue to do the full 8 cycles of chemo with #4 tomorrow. All the studies and cases suggest that finishing the treatment cycle will enhance the long term success of the cancer staying in remission. Also since I'm doing so well with it, that I should continue, and by the end of the 8th cycle I should have a full head of hair....yippie!!!!

till tomorrow with #4
vic