Treatment #8 getting started

Alrighty,

Met with the doctor. He is going to check in on a slight cough I have with a Lung Function test and is keeping me off of the Bleomycin in the meantime. I'll get posting today as I can.

Updated:

Well I slept a lot. But the important piece of our visit was talking with my Dr. He believes that within the next 5 years or so, a negative Pet Scan around the 6th treatment mark or earlier would lead Dr's to stop after treatment #8. When he heard I had a little bit of a persistent cough, he decided to discontinue the Bleo as part of the regimen. So I am now down to AVD. Truth be told, it's the D that kicks my but, but he's staying.

If after treatment #10 I start experiencing any symptoms that would worry him, he mentioned the possibility of stopping after that. YEAH. Now I need to do some research on recurrence and if shorting the treatment increases the odds.

Feelling pretty good

So for whatever reason, I recovered much better after treatment #7. My thoughts on it:

- I felt slightly less tired (maybe the extra couple days between treatments?)
- No major mouth issues outside of taste differences since I drink only sweet tea, crystal light or Gatorade at room temp.
- Nausea under control during entire treatments (just get a little queezy anticipating treatment day).
- Bowels are good to go since I followed MJ's protocol {daily docusate calcium (kaopectate) forget docusate sodium (Colace}.
- MJ also mentioned that they are up'ing her doses because she, like all of us, are gaining weight due to the roids (decadron). They haven't done that for me, but i wonder if my weight gain isn't helping me take the treatments

Needless to say...

I drifted off and got my sleep on again. It actually makes the time go faster so I don't mind at all. There was a lot of chatty people getting juiced up in there tho, so it wasn't as easy to stay asleep. My dad took me to my treatment, he had never been before. He has had a lot of people in his family die from various cancers, mostly smoking related ones, but he is the 13th of 16 kids, so he has seen his share. I am sure he has seen a infusion treatment center before, but it still is depressing. I try to tell him that Hodgkin's isn't believed to genetic, due to it's world wide indiscriminate diagnosis, but I still think that he believes his genetics has something to do with it. I'll keep trying to convince him otherwise.

Alrighty, 7 down 5 to go.

Treatment #7 live blogging

8:25am ET: Ok, so I will attempt to blog live again, even though I usually get tired and nap about 2 hours into it :)

Today's treatment was pushed back due to a quick little trip I had up to Boston with the wife. We'll see if I can do the rest without any delays. They are about to get my #'s on my blood at this time and we'll see where we are. With an extra two days in hand, I would assume that they are better then normal.

9:00am ET: As expected my WBC's are around 2700. About 600 higher then normal, but I had an extra 2 days, so... They are giving me the meds now prior to the good stuff (bad stuff).

10amET The red stuff is dripping and i don't like looking at it anymore. RRRRRR

11am ET Nappy time :)

No treatment today due to Boston trip

Alrighty,

Being the good husband I am, I deferred treatment until Friday in order to take my wife to Boston for the Red Sox Parade. Fun was had by all, even though I am an Orioles fan :) As long as the Yankees didn't win, that's all that counts.

Update after #6

I pretty much have had cold symptoms for the past 3-4 weeks. No fever (should i get a fever over 101.5, the docs would like me to go to the emergency room, since my white blood cell count is so low), but just runny nose, light chest congestion and light sore throat. I can't seem to kick it, and I'll just assume it's because of my compromised immune system, but it's becoming a drag.

I just got over the sore mouth for this past treatment. I had been super tired also, but I expect that to be over soon too.

Live blogging from treatment #6 (halfway point)

With all the good news from last week's PET Scan, I have renewed energy. So here's to not passing out during the final hours of today's push.

10:00am et: Aloxi is getting his drip on and I am getting my surf on. This should be quick.
10:25am et: Ativan and Decadron are in, just flushing it through currently.

10:55am et: Thought I would keep a running tally of my White Blood Counts. I am getting not getting an WBC booster unless I get sick. And to date I have been fine. I'll try to keep this updated.
11:05am et: Adriamycin is through and the same with the Vinblastine. Loading yo Bleomycin at this tine.
11:15am et: Bleo is done and now we are waiting on the big boy. DTIC. This is where I start to feel it.
11:40am et: Hitting the wall....rolling over for a quick nappy.

7:46pm et: Needless to say I hit the wall, woke up and got the fudge out of there. After the last med I am racing to get out. We left around 12:30pm, so not to bad. I am not feeling terrible at this moment but I did nap today real good. 6 down, 6 more to go.