Tuesday, December 30, 2008

12.30.2008 - Good MRI

On 12.30.2008, I went to work for a bit and then left for the hospital for my MRI. I always go to see my chemo nurse first because she starts my IV lines painlessly. The MRI staff could care less if you suffer while they poke and/or prod. You need an IV for the kind of MRI that I get because I get a MRI scan with and without contrast. First, the regular MRI without contrast. Then, the MRI scan with contrast solution added to your blood stream. The contrast is a metallic compound that is harmless - gadolinium. If any part of your body that they are scanning is using more blood than the rest of the area, it will light up in the scan because there will be more metal in that area. MRI means Magnetic Resonance Imaging. There isn't radiation involved.

I met with my doctor and he reviewed my scans with me after the radiologist reviewed them. They showed no change - all was stable and unchanged. My neurooncologist was pleased with the scans. There has been no new disease since I had the surgery a little over 14 months ago. That is good when you are dealing with a grade four tumor. We'll do a blood test next week to see if my counts are good enough and then schedule chemo that same week if all is well.

My chemo nurse wanted me to give myself a Neupogen shot that afternoon and in another 48 hours. I had two shots left in my refrigerator. Hopefully, that will be enough to raise my white blood cell count for next week.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

12.23.2008 - Platelet Count Rising

On 12.23.2008, I went in for what I thought was just lab work, but my chemo nurse added Avastin treatment in addition to the blood counts. I get Avastin via IV every couple weeks. It doesn't have any side effects that I can tell. I have a MRI in a week and perhaps we'll schedule chemotherapy a week after that. They could have scheduled chemo for the same day as the MRI, but it is treatment that I would need a ride for and I am not going to subject Carissa to finding a babysitter for all three kids or taking them all to the appointment to see if I can do chemo. We will wait for a blood test that guarantees that I could do chemo before we schedule the next round. My platelets were still low, but rising from what they were last time. My white blood cell count was low, but not low enough to require any treatment for it.

There isn't anything like learning how bad someone else's situation to let you know that you aren't so bad off. A guy and his wife sat down in the same chemo room that I was in and were chatty. They told me about his situation. He has the same sort of tumor that I had and in the same general location - R Temporal Lobe. He was older than me and I learned retired from the US Army. He was on long term disability and can't return to work, he is taking BOTH Avastin and Thalomid, he had aggressive regrowth that grew substantially in only a month, and they live in Colorado Springs, so they have to travel 64 miles to get to the hospital. I drive about half that - 33 miles - to get to the hospital. He and his wife wanted to know all about my situation and since I was stuck doing Avastin, which only takes a half hour now, I thought I would chat with them. Usually, I don't enjoy chatting about cancer stuff with other patients, it can be depressing.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

12.17.2008 - Low Platelets

My blood test wasn't bad on 12.17.2008. White blood cells and hemoglobin counts were good, but my platelets are low. They weren't low enough to warrant any special treatment to raise them, but I need to be on the lookout for significant nose bleeds and bruising after hardly any contact.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

12.10.2008 - Feeling Good

12.10.2008 was a scheduled CBC at the doctor's office. My blood counts were good and I received Avastin via I.V. line. Everything went great! I will likely have a MRI scheduled within the next few weeks. The only signs of my horrible flu/cold that remain are a light to moderate cough and a runny nose that needs to be blown often.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

12.03.2008 - They Couldn't Do Much For Me

The past several days have been horrible. Now, we knew on Thanksgiving that Grant had a cough, but we didn't know it would turn into the nightmare of all colds and flues. I hardly ever get sick and have been suffering from this since Saturday. My nights have been so awful. I get hardly any sleep, toss and turn, and am so congested from the excessive phlegm. I had an appointment on 12.03.2008 to get more Avastin and have my blood counts checked, but I was so out of it that I thought I might run the risk of crashing my car. Carissa and I packed the kids in the car and she drove me to my appointment. I had already decided that I wouldn't be doing the Avastin IV due to my illness and I wanted to have my nurse and doctor assess my symptoms. The doctor told me that I did not have pneumonia. I told him about the restless nights, the neverending phlegm, the coughing, the hacking, the fatigue, etc. I also asked him for a prescription for something to help me sleep. The sleepless nights have probably been the worst thing I have been dealing with. Severe sleep deprivation can exacerbate the risk of seizures too and we don't want that. He also wrote me a prescription for a cough suppressant with codeine to help with the coughing. What I really wanted was to be magically alleved of all my symptoms, but that was not to be. I was only at work for 90 minutes yesterday and didn't go today. I don't anticipate being at work tomorrow either based on how this has been going. I just want it to end.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

11.17.2008 - Three Day Chemo

11.17.2008, I am actually at the doctor's office at this very moment using my wife's laptop computer and the hospital's wireless network. I came in a couple hours ago and did a pulmonary function test, went to the cafeteria to eat lunch - something I often forget to do on chemo days - and then went to my doctor's office to get chemo.

This round is the drug, BCNU, which used to be administered over 72 hours as an inpatient in the hospital, but is now administered for four hours a day over three days. This one is something that usually doesn't cause much discomfort for me and I can drive myself to and from the appointments since there they don't give me any benadryl.

In a couple weeks, the effects will be more significant - I won't feel worse, but my blood counts will drop noticeably. We knew chemo would happen today because the last time I went in for a blood check - two weeks ago - my chemo nurse said that my blood counts were beautiful. I don't know if I had ever heard her use that word to describe my blood counts before.

I will be off of work 11.22.2008 through 11.24.2008 and depending on how I feel, I could be out 11.25.2008 and 11.26.2008, but probably not. The oral chemo drug that always accompanies my intravenous chemo, Temodar, can cause me to feel somewhat nauseous. We'll just have to see.

I was off work Friday of last week as well. That day off wasn't for my medical needs though, I took my wife to get laser eye surgery so she will never need to wear contact lenses or glasses again. It was a great investment. She is loving not having any optical aids.

I have had side effects from the Thalomid (the trade name for thalidomide). My doctor and chemo nurse have reminded me many times to be attentive to signs of peripheral neuropathy. It is tingling and numbness in the hands and feet. I have been having difficulty buttoning up my kids’ clothes and using zippers some times and never associated with the Thalomid. I was browsing a web site that talked about the effects of Thalomid and saw that this was a sign of neuropathy, so I brought it up to my doctor. He wanted to keep an eye on it and for me to let him know if it got worse. It wasn’t too bad of a problem

I then began noticing about a week or two ago that I had numbness in my feet. My right foot was pretty numb from the ball of my foot forward and my left foot was pretty numb just in my toes. I had thought my right foot was asleep sometimes, but then I realized that it was “asleep” all the time and that wasn’t right. I told my doctor about it today and he wanted to take me off the Thalomid immediately. This neuropathy (loss of sensation) would likely only get worse over time and is sometimes irreversible. It is better to stop the process as soon as it is this significant. Hopefully, everything will go back to normal after being off of it for a while.

There is an alternative to Thalomid, it is something called Avastin. Avastin is given every two to three weeks intravenously and takes about half an hour to administer. The big issue is usually insurance coverage. Many insurance providers don’t like to cover Avastin because it is expensive and a newer drug, so it doesn’t have the same established track record of some of the older drugs. It is an angiogenesis inhibitor, which means that it slows/prevents new blood vessels from forming in the tumor like Thalomid, but it has hardly any side effects.

On 11.18.2008, I am here again at my doctor's office, sitting in a leather recliner chair waiting for all the drips to leave this last IV bag. I already did my four hour BCNU session and am now almost done with the Avastin session. The first round of Avastin is given over 90 minutes. The second is over 60 minutes. Every subsequent dose is over 30 minutes. I feel pretty tired and some of it is due to the chemo and some of it is due to a restless night. The Thalomid causes significant fatigue and I was at the maximum dose for brain tumor patients - 1200mg - and now I am not taking it at all. It will take a little time for my body to adapt to not having it.

Oh, the drips just stopped dripping. Maybe I can leave now. I was gone for nine hours yesterday and I have been gone for almost eight so far today. You'll hear more from me tomorrow for my last dose of BCNU.

On 11.19.2008, I did not feel well after I got done with chemo yesterday. I just felt ill all evening and then had difficulty again going to bed. It was another rough night. Once I did get to bed, I woke up two and a half hours later to then go in and out of sleep from then until a little after six in the morning.

I wanted to try to get to the office early because my nurse said I could come as early as I wanted (her schedule is very busy today) and the earlier I come in, the earlier I get to leave. I ended up arriving only a few minutes early due to gridlock traffic on the freeway. It was seriously like traffic in the Bay Area of California. It took a hour and a half to get to the doctor's office.

I will be so happy to be done with this. It has really drained me. No appointments next week because BCNU usually causes delayed effects, so they will check my blood counts the week after Thanksgiving Day. One perk about being in the office on Wednesday is that they have a massage therapist that comes in every Wednesday. I asked my nurse to tell me when she arrives.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

10.23.2008 - Bad Lab Results

I went in for lab results on 10.23.2008 and they drew my blood and five minutes later had my results, as usual. They can do it that fast because they are a hematology lab and don't send anything out. My neutrophil count was zero. That level alarmed my chemo nurse. Evidently, neutrophils are the most active of the white blood cells and are the first to attack microorganisms. My nurse wanted me to begin injecting myself with Neupogen daily and taking an antibiotic daily until my next appointment, which will be on Tuesday.

Friday, October 17, 2008

10.17.2008 - Another Round of Chemo & A Timeline

On 10.17.2008, my wife took me to my doctor's office and I got my intravenous line started and then went to radiology at the adjacent hospital and had a MRI. After that, the doctor met with my wife and I and reviewed the scans. The scans revealed that everything was stable and unchanged. The tumor is under control. While the chemo usually lasts a year, my doctor asked me if I could continue with aggressive treatment for four to six more months. His rationale was that he is treating an aggressive disease and most people don't survive it. His goal is just to get me to the three year mark, where the survival curve flattens out and most people survive indefinitely after that point. Since chemo is only something I have to deal with every four to six weeks, I thought I could do that. He wanted to keep me on Thalidomide as long as we could, possibly even up to three years. If I needed to lower the amount I was taking at some point, he thought that was quite reasonable. My body has adapted to the Thalidomide well and I don't notice the fatigue nearly as much these days. My wife and I felt all of it was reasonable. I didn't feel so hot from the round of chemo and will likely be laying around the house the whole weekend and probably Monday and possibly Tuesday as well. This one, while a one day session, usually kicks my butt pretty hard. What I had today was Irinotecan and Taxol. My wife had to drive me because I can't drive myself home after the chemo due to all the benadryl that they treat me with to prevent any allergic reaction to the chemo drugs. I will also be taking Temodar orally for the next five days and usually don't feel good until that is over with. Wednesday or Thursday will probably be the first day I feel good again.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

09.03.2008 - Three Day Chemo Session

09.03.2008, 09.04.2008 & 09.05.2008 were spent at my doctor's office receiving BCNU. I received it for four hours a day for each of those days. They had to lower the dose from what I had received before since it caused my blood counts to drop for such a long time. I don't feel too bad, but I don't feel great either. The BCNU rarely caused much distress to me. I am able to drive myself to and from the appointments. It does cause delayed effects to my body though that will show up two or three weeks after I have it.

Monday, August 11, 2008

08.11.2008 - Unbelievable Fatigue


It is 08.11.2008 and I still haven't returned to work since having chemo five days ago. I hope to return to work tomorrow. All these drugs make me feel so tired. How many naps can I take? I always feel tired after all the additional rest. Feeling tired all the time gets old and I wish I could just feel normal. It is all part of a greater plan to knock the cancer out, but it is difficult to be patient. The photo is what I take every night and that isn't including chemo. Do you know anyone who takes more pills than I do?

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

08.06.2008 - Another Round of Chemo

On 08.06.2008 I had chemotherapy again and it went pretty well. This is the stuff that should make all my hair fall out again. Just when my beard was coming in thick and full and my hair was coming in the same. I don't feel awful today, but won't be going into to work today or tomorrow because of how I have felt in the past following this type of chemo. I have had to lay down for a while this morning and expect to rest a decent portion of the next couple days.

Things are going pretty well here. We finally got a lot of rain last night. We need more though to catch up for our lack of rain so far this year. The job is going well. I do miss being a first responder so much. Being a police officer is the best job I have ever had and I would love to return to the profession at some point. What I do now is fulfilling, but not so much as being a police officer was.

A Denver PD sergeant already tried to recruit me during a trial a month or so ago. It would be a pay cut and I don't think my current health would permit me to do it at this time.

Friday, June 27, 2008

06.26.2008 - Trip to the ER

On 06.26.2008, I felt really tired and then had some problems typing on my computer at work. I noticed my speech sounded really strange during a phone call that I made. I went home and slept for a while and when I woke up, my wife noticed that my speech was strange and she was alarmed. She said it sounded like it was slurred. I couldn't help it, that is just how it was coming out. It got better soon after and we called my doctor's office. He was out of town, but the staff said that if things got worse to bring me into the ER. I soon developed a painful headache in the worst spot...where the tumor was. My wife took me to the ER and they gave me something to help with the pain and kept me overnight. Preliminary scans did not reveal any anomalies. I received more comprehensive scans the following morning and everything showed that all was the same as it was before. The conclusion reached was that I had a seizure. I didn't recognize it as a seizure. I was fully conscious and just felt really tired. They increased my anti-seizure medication as a result.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

06.14.2008 - Another Session Over & Done With

This past week, I only worked 06.09.2008 and 06.10.2008. The schedule showed me out 06.11.2008 through 06.13.2008 and a couple co-workers asked me if I was taking a vacation. I told them it wasn't a vacation, unless you can consider sitting or lying in a chair for three days for four hours each day with a needle in your arm and getting chemotherapy a vacation. This was a three day session of BCNU. I don't feel too bad now and that is pretty good. I was kind of wiped out on the evening of 06.13.2008 and that wasn't the greatest time to be wiped out because my wife was watching her brother's four kids in addition to ours because his wife was in surgery and then she had to fly out that night for her grandmother's funeral. It was a busy evening. I have been very busy today with lots of yard work and house organization and cleaning type chores. Perhaps the key to not getting sick is to stay really busy? Of course, the BCNU doesn't wipe me out like the one day session of Irinotecan and Taxol.

Friday, May 16, 2008

05.12.2008 - One Hard Week

This week really kicked my butt. I had chemo on 05.09.2008 and was sick all weekend and had to stay home from work on 05.12.2008. I didn't feel that good on 05.13.2008 or 05.14.2008, but was able to work. On 05.15.2008, I had a doctor visit and my white blood cell count was low. That was to be expected due to the chemotherapy and they gave me a shot of Neulasta to boost my WBC count. I felt really tired that day and my boss told me before I left for the appointment to perhaps take a nap before returning to work. When I got home, I slept for about five hours and then had a normal evening and then slept my usual eight hours. 05.16.2008, I finally felt mostly normal. Still not perfect, but close. This may have been the hardest hit I have ever been from the chemo. Not fun.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

05.09.2008 - One Day Chemo Session

On 05.09.2008, I had another chemotherapy session, but it was a one day session. I couldn't drive myself, so my wife dropped me off and after they gave me a large dose of benadryl through the IV, I was out for hours. I woke up and tried to do some work, but couldn't get anything done, so I gave it up. Right as the nurse was disconnecting the IV, my brother-in-law arrived and picked me up and drove me home. Timing worked out well, but I felt poorly the remainder of the evening. I didn't feel great Saturday either. The morning wasn't too bad, but it got unpleasant in the afternoon, and now I am perking up a bit. I had to prepare two cases for trial for Monday and those are done. I had a jury trial on Thursday and that was a good experience since I haven't had a jury trial since I went out for this medical situation in October of last year. There wasn't a verdict. The jury was deadlocked. After multiple proclamations by the jury that they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict and two and a half hours of deliberating, the judge declared a mistrial. The drugs in this IV session were Irinotecan (also known as Camptosar) and Taxol.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

04.09.2008 - Three Day Chemo Session

04.09.2008 was the beginning of a three day chemo session of BCNU. I started the morning off with a MRI and the results were positive. The doctor believes we have good control over the tumor and there appears to be no new growth. I also begin another five day cycle of the oral chemo drug Temodar. Since each of the three days is a four hour session, I thought I would use the time productively. I have five jury trials scheduled for Monday and brought the files with me to the doctor's office to work on and prepare. What better time to prepare than when I am stuck in a chair for a few hours with nothing to do. I don't feel bad so far, but I still have a couple days to go. I am taking Thalidomide, but haven't been increasing the dosage nearly as fast as the doctor would like. It causes drowsiness and the more you take the sleepier you feel. Last time I was at 250mg, I could barely function at work and went home and took a three hour nap. The doctor wants me to get up to 800mg to 1200mg. He thinks I need to push through the fatigue and it may improve over time.

Friday, March 14, 2008

03.14.2008 - Chemo Again

It is 03.14.2008 and it has been a while since my last cycle of chemo, but it had to come again sometime. Tuesday was supposed to be the day I had chemo, but only if my blood counts were up high enough. They didn't think the counts would be in the right range because one level was down the week before. I surprised them and my blood counts were great. I wasn't ready for chemo though because I drove myself to the appointment and it turns out that one of the drugs they were going to give me causes an allergic reaction in some people and they give benadryl before the drug to prevent a reaction. They didn't want me driving after that. We rescheduled for Thursday.

So, yesterday, my wife drove me to the doctor's office and once the benadryl went from the IV bag and into me, I was out cold. I was pretty much asleep for the five hour session. It made the time go by quickly, but I didn't sleep well that night. I was able to work a full day at the office today, but the last hour was pretty rough. After work, I went home and just laid down for a few hours to rest. Nausea is never fun. Let's hope it is very temporary. I should have the next MRI and chemo session in a little less than four weeks.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

03.01.2008 - Back To Work

It is 03.01.2008 and the past two weeks have gone well. I have been back to work full-time. There have still been doctor visits, but most are just for blood checks. No nausea, nothing else really either. I started taking an antiangiogenic (an agent that inhibits the development of new blood vessels) which will prevent tumors from growing because they can't develop a blood supply. My energy levels are pretty much what they used to be and things are going well. I do get tired of taking drugs sometimes, but I will do what is necessary to eradicate this cancer.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

02.16.2008 - A Break

I did my three days of intensive (four hour sessions) chemotherapy and am taking the oral chemo agent as well. Things were going well during the week...just fatigue. Yesterday afternoon and almost all of today, 02.16.2008, I have felt nauseous. It is unpleasant. I am starting to feel better now. I had a desire for Taco Bell, so I drove down there and picked some up and I feel good. I will have weekly blood checks to see how my system is doing with this most recent barrage of chemotherapy and then in about five weeks, I will start another cycle of chemotherapy. The next cycle will be a different drug and won't involve three solid days of being in the office. If I recall correctly, it will be a five hour session, but only on one day. It is nice to know that I will have a break from treatment for a few weeks.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

02.12.2008 - Results & The Next Steps

02.12.2008 was a long day. I checked into radiology at 0800 hours and then had a MRI a short time later. After that, I had to have a Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) which was to assess how my lungs were doing. Evidently, some of the chemotherapy drugs can adversely affect the lungs. I asked the respiratory therapist if the testing would be similar to what I had to do annually as a firefighter in order to wear a SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) and she said it was different. Well, after doing the whole testing process, I found it to be quite similar to the pulmonary testing that I had to do as a firefighter. There were a lot of deep breaths and then rapid and forceful exhalations.

Next, I went to see the neurooncologist and he reviewed the MRI scans and the PFT results. My lungs were great. The MRI scans showed that there was still some residual tumor remaining in my brain. This was to be expected. My neurosurgeon told me that he was able to remove about 90% of the tumor or so. The residual tumor tissue was kind of like a ring around the healthy brain tissue around the cavity where the other tumor tissue was resected in October. The doctor didn't think that any growth had occurred since the surgery and I didn't think any had either looking at the scans.

It was next to impossible to use the MRI scans taken right after surgery as a baseline because the MRI was unable to discern tumor tissue from blood, debris, scar tissue, and other liquids occupying the cavity. Now, things have cleared out significantly. The scans taken today will form the new baseline. We may do a future scan that will include spectroscopy. I learned that spectroscopy is a MRI scan that involves detailed analysis of the substances that make up what is in the cavity. The main issue of whether or not this can be done is if the insurance will pay for it. Having spectroscopy done costs significantly more than just a regular MRI with and without contrast.

Now that we know that the tumor is responding to treatment, the next step is to continue treatment. The radiation part is over. The chemotherapy will still continue. The tested my blood levels and found that all is well with my blood. They were very impressed at how my immune system was functioning. The chemo agents often knock down the immune system, but I have learned that my immune system recovers well from the agents I have been subjected to so far.

I started the first day of a three day intensive IV chemo program. I received a chemo agent over a four hour period and then will have it again on Wednesday and Thursday. So far, I feel no side effects whatsoever from it. I will also take the oral chemo drug that I took during radiation for the next five nights.

There won't be that much more chemotherapy involved because the body can only take so much of it and needs to have rest periods. Chemotherapy agents are toxic and while the goal is to poison the cancer, the body needs to have time to recover from those agents as well. The doctor advised that the new and latest focus in oncology is what he referred to as "biologicals." The drugs he referred to are all antiangiogenesis agents. That means that they inhibit the growth of new blood vessels in the tumor tissue. If the tumor can't produce new blood vessels to feed itself, it will not be able to grow. The side effects are minimal with the biologic agents and occur rarely.

Most of the future therapy will be oral agents, so I can take them at home instead of sitting in the doctor's office for many hours at a time. I learned today that the treatment plan may last up to three years with all involved. I was surprised to learn that because it seems like they spring new information on the treatment plan on me each time I see them. I asked the chemotherapy nurse why I only received bits of information at a time and the plan kept expanding more and more each time they shared it with me.

She told me that since they don't know how each patient will respond to the different treatments (how they will tolerate different drugs and how the tumor will respond to the drugs), they don't want to elaborate on this multi-year plan when hardly any of it may actually happen. In addition, going over that much information early on can be overwhelming. I could understand both of these points. However, I still like to know what is going to take place and I like to know all of it, rather than bits and pieces.

I considered today one of good news. I didn't want to see any new growth or activity with the tumor. This is a high grade glioma and no new growth or activity is what is sought.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

02.02.2008 - We're going to Disneyland

It is 02.02.2008 and things have been going well. No additional side effects and no symptoms of tumor regrowth, but it would be rather early to see that happening. We are going to Disneyland next week. It should be a fun family trip. Work is going well too. I have been working part-time in the afternoons and will continue until I feel up to full days at the office.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

01.26.2008 - Feeling Much Better

It is 01.26.2008 and this past week has been a wonderful reprieve from the unpleasantness that followed the end of the initial phase of treatment. I feel normal and am eager to find out how well this follow-up treatment went. I will have the MRI and learn of the results in 2.5 weeks. It is very nice not to have to drive 45 minutes to the hospital for the daily treatment sessions too.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

01.19.2008 - First Phase of Follow-Up Treatment

It is 01.19.2008 and I am finally feeling better after a lot of sickness. I was sick for most of the past week yet again. Now, I feel normal, which is so nice. Last night was the first time in a while that I actually felt hungry to eat a snack between meals. No more nausea or vomiting. I lost almost a pound a day this last week according to nurse in the oncologist's office. My appetite has been so decreased that I have been finding that far smaller portions are all I need to feel full now. I guess my stomach is markedly smaller than what it used to be.

Many people have asked what happens next and I have a time line for that now. In slightly over three weeks, I will get the brain MRI and start the three day intense IV chemotherapy plan.

Overall, I must say that I felt worse this past week and a half than I did following either surgical procedure.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

01.12.2008 - Seven Weeks Into Treatment

It is 01.12.2008, and 31 Radiation therapy sessions are down and three cycles of chemotherapy done. Well, I still have two more days to take oral chemotherapy pills and then the third cycle is done. The oral stuff isn't too bad on my system. I have three radiation therapy sessions to do next week and then I am done with radiation therapy. After that, I get a month off of treatment and then get a MRI to see how treatment affected the tumor and - unfortunately - have a brief, but intense chemotherapy treatment where I get chemotherapy three days in a row for four hours a day. They tell me it is better tolerated than the stuff I am getting in the IV now.

This past week was my worst week of the treatment. It started poorly with my intense illness from the flu on Sunday and then, Tuesday night, I actually started feeling almost normal. I had my last IV chemotherapy session on Wednesday and as planned, they increased the dose again. We definitely found the dosage that I can tolerate because I was not feeling well after that. Wednesday was an unpleasant day. I didn't feel well on Thursday either. Friday, I felt well enough to spend the afternoon at the office. Today, I have been feeling a lot of fatigue and just been trying to rest.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

01.08.2008 - Radiation Treatment



Monday, January 7, 2008

01.07.2008 - Six Weeks Into Treatment

It is 01.07.2008 and there is just one more week or so of radiation therapy and one cycle of chemotherapy left. Things are still going well with side effects aside from this past weekend. I was very ill this past weekend, but I think it had a lot more to do with me having the flu rather than the treatment. We have all had the flu in our house and had it bad. I was hoping it would skip over me, but I got it too.

I had to skip one radiation therapy session this past week because one of the kids was so ill from the flu. Glad there wasn't a session to attend on Sunday or else I would have had to skip another session because I was so ill. Let's hope that this illness is done passing through our house. So much for flu shots...not that I have ever had any faith in them. The one year that I get a flu shot and am in a "high risk" category, I get the flu really bad. I rarely get sick and won't get one again.