The iggy on how I feel

Well, it's the midpoint between treatment #2 and #3 and I feel fine. I would say that I had all of the other symptoms under control this time. Save for the hair falling out, nothing new to report. "Hot Wing Mouth" disappeared Monday night along with any mild nausea and fatigue. The early numbers are looking good on how I feel between treatments. I am off to go look like this cat now. Save for his mad-stylish fur (said with envy).

Hair today, gone tomorrow...

The "hot wing" mouth symptom and some light nausea was all I had been experiencing during the 5-7 days post treatment 1 and now treatment 2. Yesterday, when I got to work I noticed my shirt looked like I had just gotten a haircut. I dusted it off. 15 minutes later it looked the same (beard and scalp both). I expected it to happen, weird that it happened almost all at once :)

I still have hair, but I decided to shave it off. Pics below:

Blogging live from Treatment #2

I have dreamt of this. Wi-fi access from the Infusion Therapy Center in Winchester Medical Center. I was able to connect and all is well. I will make some live updates to this post throughout the morning.

11:10am ET: Whitey was 2400 today after being 1400 Friday, so we are all systems go. I have gotten the Adriamycin, Vinblastin and a few flushes. Showed all the nurses my blog and they liked it. They also advised that, going forward, they will go through treatments regardless of White counts and then react with Neupogen or Neulasta if I get sick and get fevers. I am fine with this. Wife went to get her laptop and some documents. This place is filling up, people are dying to get in here (pun).

12:30pm ET: HUNGER anyone?

1:30pm ET: All but done. Mouth feeling mad metallicy. Getting hungry. All is well though. Wife sitting next to me. Both of us have our laptops open and we look like a couple of mooks.

2:30pm ET All done and home. Mouth feels like it is on fire from the Dacarbazine, but all else is fine. 2 down, 10 to go. 4 more before I get a status PET scan and see how things look. Peace out for now.

Small world

So me, babers and my folks decide to take the baberszzzzz out to the Clark County Fair (in VA) yesterday. It was a beautiful day and the kids were unbelievably calm and chill. We had the best time. The boys really enjoyed the demolition derby. Anyways, on our way out, we ran into my Oncologist, Dr. William Houck. He apparently owns a farm and supports 4-H and sits on the School Board. All of this in addition to fixing my deal. He was unbelievable with his time and we discussed everything from treatment to the kids. Everyone in the office knows me as the jackass with 5 kids all under the age of 26 months old. Here is a picture of my pigs in their strollers.

RRRRR........

Low white blood cell counts (~1400) have postponed my treatment until Wednesday. RRRRRRRRR.....

Anyways, I shouldn't have expected it to go 100% smoothly and have heard of similar stories from others. Sanban had strep which put her on hiatus.

The funny thing is, I don't feel bad nor do I feel sick or a cold or anything coming on (knock on wood). I would have thought I could tell. This past week, I felt as good as I did before my first treatment.

RRRRRRRRR....

UPDATE:
I think my doctors are playing it safe inre to side affects or secondary cancers. They went for 6 cycles of ABVD over a combo of ABVD and Radiation taking the increased risk of recurrence over the risk of secondary cancers developing. They are now holding off on Neupogen due to some known interactions between it and Bleomycin. I think I get the theory, and hoping it's right.

Take 2 is Weds in the middle of the week.

2nd treatment <36 hours away

My Second treatment is Friday at 8am and I feel great right now. For the past 6-7 days I have had no side affects and not even the hint of nausea. I also hope to be out of there by noon this time (if not before). I have gotten a lot of tips on what to eat and what otc meds to take to keep me regular (TMI, i know). So I am ready for this one. PLUS, I have ordered a couple of shirts with the caption from my blog. I can't wait for it to get here and I am pretty psyched to have a "chemo shirt".

Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

I just got an answer to a question I sent the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society inre to the difference stats on recurrence for someone treated with ABVD only and those with a combination of ABVD and radiation. I got a quick response with the following:

"The type of treatment that a patient receives also has an influence: for example, 13% of patients with a favorable presentation who are treated with ABVD alone will relapse, versus 6% of those who receive ABVD and radiation."

They also provided a wonderful link to a Q & A done with Dr. G in Toronto. She is the Medical Director of the cancer program at Prince Margaret Hospital in Toronto.

While this at first would seem to favor dual treatment, the link goes on to mention that their control rate for the study was lower and the negative side affects of radiation inre to secondary cancers (specifically radiation outside of a small area).

So any confusion I had on whether "I" would prefer the dual treatment (possibly short chemo with low dose radiation afterwards) or just chemo, has been cleared up a bit. I prefer solo chemo jones, which is what I am getting. For anyone out there with Hodge and didn't know, the LLS has great resources. From information to questions to ask your Dr., to Co-pay Assistance.