Thursday, December 31, 2009

R-CHOP Oh how I love that feeling!

As I tell anyone who asks, I am perfectly normal.

This will perhaps be a bit disjointed, as the prednisone does funny things to me.  But with that disclaimer let me say that although my blood sugars are higher than they ought to be; I had no major complication.

At least not yet.

This stuff is supposed to stay in my system and work on me over the next 21 days.  I'm supposed to feel really awful after perhaps 10 days?  After it has done the destructive work that will trash my blood cells both red and white.

You can Google R-CHOP if you want detail about what the drugs were.  I remember I slept a lot because they infused it with an antihistamine: benadryl.


The infusions were left to right but one is called the 'red devil' there was a lot of it and it makes you pee red.  One of these makes your hair brittle and I can expect it to fall out.

The last infusion gave me the sniffles for about an hour. 

We were there early, although there was no valet parking so Mary dropped me off and I just went in and up to the third floor. I waited around and Mary joined me well before they took me in and my Oncologist stopped by and we all had a rather pleasant chat before he had to go back to rounds. I guess he was going to be on call for a while. He had left an envelop with some scripts in them and he explained what they were to Mary and me; and we went over the PET/CT scan pathology report.

Fortunately I don't remember too much about that Path report: it was two pages long and presented me with multiple locations of little treasures buried in my body.

I was simply waiting to die and didn't even know it.

Of course it could be simple suggestion, but my neck feels a little better.  I'm not hurting like I used to.  The hard lump went away several days ago and I will always ask what it was because it was the cause of the trip to the ENT which started this rather large ball rolling.

We stopped off and picked up some burgers on the way home and my blood sugars are running 300, I'm going to have to call the on call nurse at my doctors office and find a way to fix that.

We came in about noon and left about 6:45 pm.

But I'm in that sweet after glow that comes from being home after a long and exhausting day.  I should enjoy it while it lasts.  I'll probably be sick tomorrow since this stuff does a number on the lining of the gut.

Good Night.

PS

I have the lab report from the spinal fluid they took out and I'll have to call someone to understand what it should tell me.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

MUGA, Lumbar Puncture and Stage

Today I had a MUGA first off which is a test to show what kind of shape your heart is in.  Especially the valves.  The reason for this is some of the chemo can damage the heart.

My heart looked really good.

I think the lumbar puncture had me sweating.  I remember asking myself as I was lying there if I had put BO on this morning.  then I didn't care. I have not been so scared half out of my wits since I can remember, but I just held on to the pillow and hoped the guys doing this knew what they were doing.

The idea was to take about 6.5 cc's of fluid out and send it to the pathologists to see if there were little metastatic critters in there and then put the same amount of Methotrexate back in to kill them off if they're there or not.

I guess prophylaxis is the proper word.

There were a few strange twinges and the pain killer burned, but it was OK.

We talked to the doctor about the extent of spread and he mentioned 4 or 5 places.  Liver, spleen maybe rib, tailbone.  I thought I only had one little buddy, but I've got a bunch.  I wouldn't have noticed this if it hadn't been for the one in the neck eating into my C2 vertebra.

But I've got a lot, and maybe elsewhere like spinal area or brain, we just don't know.

The good news is we're looking to cure, not just extend life although my case is referred to as "challenging".

PS

So this week I have had a PET scan, a CT scan, two pokes for bone marrow extractions and lumbar puncture with an infusion.  I look forward to R-CHOP chemo tomorrow.

Friday, December 18, 2009

I have this horrible headache

For those of you who just tuned in, it all started with a headache which I ignored.  I emailed my doctor about it and tried the usual OTC remedies.  The pain didn't go away and got worse, my doctor prescribed skelaxin that relaxed the muscles and I felt better; and one night I had the most hideous neck spasms and pain in the neck and head that I can describe - I called my doctor and he prescribed a more heavy duty muscle relaxant.  

Finally, I got a lump on my neck and when I noticed a harder lump my doctor sent me to an ENT and she ordered a CT scan and there was a mass.  Eating into my C2 vertebra.

She did a biopsy (which was not a pleasant experience) and it was discovered to be lymphoma.  I called it my secret lymphoma because it had been hiding out for probably six months.