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Starting chemo round 2 today.
Round one was bad, but not horrible. I did not experience any nausea, diarrhea, or constipation, but there was a lot of killer heartburn. It was also fairly difficult to sleep.
On the Sunday following the first week, I felt like I had weights tied to all of my limbs. I took out the trash, and that pretty much wiped me out for the rest of the day.
My hair started falling out this past weekend. Not a huge deal, as I normally shave my head. It is kind of weird, as it comes out with no effort at all.
The worst part so far is that it’s boring. I’ve been here for 4 hours, and still have 3 to go.
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How many rounds are you scheduled for? And how many days constitute a round?
Hope you get through this one even better than the last.
Three rounds.
Week 1: five days, 3-5 hours per day for the infusions, an extra hour on day one for doctor consult.
Week 2 & 3: one infusions per week @ about 45 minutes.
Repeat.
They will check tumor markers after each round.
I did get a port installed, which makes it so much easier.
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Best of luck to you.
Ugh. Just seeing this thread now, Wolf. Cancer is a fucking bastard. That’s not eloquent or even terribly insightful, but it’s how I feel. Kick its ass on behalf of yourself and all of us who’ve had loved ones taken from us.
Not so much pain as just the apprehension and/or discomfort from knowing I might stir things up too much. Still, you gotta wash down there.
Looking back on it, the old guy, Dr. B, never minded grabbing hold of that testicle and stressing the internals a little bit, just so long as I never passed out or something. The replacement guy, Dr. S, wouldn’t touch a scrotum to save his life is my guess. I fired the replacement guy more than a year ago.
No big loss, except I miss Dr. B.
Good news! My tumor markers dropped from 61 in August to 9 this week.
Also, I shaved my head on Monday and it hasn’t grown back at all! Think of all money I’ll save on razors!
As of right now, the worst side effects are hiccups, heartburn, and the steroids make me very twitchy. Makes sleep a little difficult.
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Glad to hear the good news. Hope you keep right on going down. Er…markers that is.
Excellent! Keep it going (down)!
Thanks everyone.
Not a huge update (hopefully that will come next week), but I’ve had two straight weeks of good blood counts (adjusted for a chemo patient). My red count is low, but within expected ranges (if that makes sense), so I’ve been really tired and wheezy for the past two weeks.
Odd side effect:
I also happen to have a blood disorder called mastocytosis. Technically, I have cutaneous mastocytosis with systemic symptoms. Basically, I sometimes just go into anaphylaxis.
This was all under control (I take large doses of antihistamines, daily) for two years, but I’ve now had three attacks since may. The latest was today.
Most likely, the attacks were not directly caused my either the cancer or the chemo drugs, but by stress.
The good news is that I’ve become pretty adept at handling these attacks.
Today, I was in a coworkers vehicle. We had just left a restaurant, and I told him “John, we need to turn around and head towards the hospital. Find a good place to turn around… don’t speed, stop tailgating, we’re good, we’re fine”.
The whole time, I’m taking hits on my inhaler and watching my Fitbit (when my heart rate hits 130, I use the Epipen. Gotta draw the line somewhere).
Thanks for the update. Chemo is a miserable experience, and it’s good to see that you’re doing relatively well so far.
Positive and healing vibes headed your way.
Very glad to hear the blood count news.
With the mastocytosis, is there any need to adjust medications, at least while you’re under the increased stress? Or are you just stuck dealing with additional attacks in the interim? Definitely sounds like no fun, but I’m glad to hear you’re so calm in managing them.
Sorry to have missed this the first time around. I had the same (orchi) procedure done for the same reason in the same way; all went well. I was lucky to have caught it very early and thus no need for chemo, although I did a course of preventative radiotherapy which wasn’t much fun in itself.
My elderly mother went through a fairly serious course of chemo earlier this year and made it through with flying colors. While it’s a miserable experience it’s important to remember that there is an end to it and if everything works out it’s worth it. Positive thoughts/good vibes/warm fuzzies to you and hang in there, man.
All best wishes sent your way. So sorry about the diagnosis, good news that the markers are heading the right way.
I had testicular torsion 30+ years ago, misdiagnosed in emerg, then misdiagnosed as cancer, the unilateral orchidectomy revealed the torsion. Didn’t get the fake ball; I told them I wanted an iron one, or none. My brother kept calling me Captain Nemo…
You know, the commander of the “Nutless.” Warm thoughts and best wishes being sent your way!
But isn’t brass more traditional?
I can go up on the Doxepin, but my allergist is hesitant to do so, as it can have some nice side-effects of it’s own (it was originally developed as an anti-depressant).
I only have a few weeks of chemo left.
Thanks for the well-wishes, everyone.
More good news:
Tumor markers -
August 62 9
October 9 <1
November 3 <1
I’m relatively normal! (Normal is 8.4 and <1).
Woo-hoo!