Our Chemo Journey

[dadmo]

Half way done and everything seems ok. Congratulations

[Karen]

Becki,
That's great news! Good luck with the bleo day. Each step is closer to a cure!

[mercyriver]

Day two of round two is actually going well. We are ready to give more tylenol and benadryl at the 4 hour mark to try to avoid the major Bleomycin reaction.

Also I had to let you all know that when they did the WBC yesterday his counts had sky-rocketed. They went from 3.3 the week before to 9.9. His neutrophils were all the way up at 6.5 when they were 1.5 the week before. Even his platelet count jumped from 150 to 330. Funny his RBC is staying nice and steady through out all of this.

His kideney function test came back normal as.

So everything so far for round one is going great. Can't wait to be past our Belo day!

Becki

[boyce]

Sense of humor

As regards Bleo is impossible..or at least it was for me. I just don't see how anyone could be "up" or even able to joke about the effects of the Bleo. It was simply awful. I venture to guess that as bad as you think he feels..he really feels much worse!

It just wrecks you. NO energy, NO stamina, NO strength. And for so many of us, we are used to being active and enjoying life. In addition, I was on a steroid -- help me here room as I forget the name -- and that made me mean as a damn snake on top of feeling so bad.

You are a blessing in his life as you support him, and I hope you can both take some small comfort knowing that this really is temporary. Life gets back to normal SO quickly.

[Apache]

I had the same issues with Bleo. High fever and profuse sweating for about 8 after receipt. IV benadryl and tylenol = same = helped a lot. I've been thinking about you guys. Keep up the faith!

[mercyriver]

Actually the day after bleo always makes the world seem brighter, even if it is snowing.

Bleo days do seem to be getting worse, but it is so nice that my husband is still able to sleep it off and get up and go again the next day like nothing happened.

I know next week when he is doing the EP he won't bounce back quite the same, but it should be a better day the day after.

It is just hard because my husband has totally lost his sense of humor about Bleo, even this morning he was still frowning and not joking about anything, the complete opposite of his normal self. Even despite feeling OK.

And yes, I know one day at a time!

Becki

[boyce]

Bleo gets better

In my case I had identical sysmptoms form Bleo. Very high fevers (103+). After about the 5th week of Bleo the feveres were much less severe. I did do a lot of sleeping on "Bleo Tuesday", but generally staretd feeling pretty OK as of Wednesday.

The Cisplatin and Etopiside gets harder to handle as time goes on, but the bleo generally gets better. Please tell your husband to call me or reply to this note if he'd like to talk. I ws diagnosed 7 months ago this week at age 37.

An amazing, brutal, demanding and rewarding journey. Hang in there one day at a time. Tell him that we all believe in him and the he can DO it!

[dadmo]

It certainly is a rough road but your 1/3 of the way home. Each round is a bit tougher but not by leaps and bounds. It's more that it wears you down quicker. Better days are comming. Spring will certainly be a season of rebirth for your family, savior every minute.

[Scott]

I'm sorry your husband -- and you -- have to suffer along with those dying cancer cells. Keep the faith, better days are ahead.

[mercyriver]

Day 16

Well we made it this far and today was day 16...the day of the third dose of Bleomycin.

Last Tuesday my husband actually ended up having a reaction to the Bleo. Just a high fever. They had me bring him back just to make sure, but his blood pressure was fine. His pulse was 156. But everything else was OK.

Today, it was about the same reaction, high fever, 102.9 while on Tyelnol and his normal temprature is around 97.5, so I guess it could be looked at as even higher then that.

Either way, did more Tylenol and more Bynadryl and he slept the entire afternoon.


We also did the head shaving today, his hair was starting to make a dusting of itself on everything. It was getting messy. So we had decided to just have it taken off.

After that he went back to sleep again.

It is really getting hard to watch him go through the Bleomycin. I can't even imagine if it just keeps getting worse. It in itself is a small piece of hell for him every time.

Becki

[mercyriver]

My husband finished week one last week, topped off by the Nuelasta shot on Saturday, no bone pain, but he is now having shoulder pain in the arm opposite of the injection site. They prescribed him a muscle relaxent to rule out that it might be anything else, like a blood clot.

He recieved his second Bleomycin today and so far so good.

He is quite a bit more tired then ever before but other then that, this week is seeming easy.

He actually went into work yesterday, worked 7 hours. He has a desk job so it isn't as bad as it could be. He took today off because of the effect Bynadryl has on him.

He did discover yesterday he has to time when he takes his compazine though, it made it hard for him to drive. Makes sense.

So right now he is doing his best to rest until the next round. He is eating well, though things do taste off. Watching and waiting on his hair.

Becki

[dadmo]

Just keep that food comming. All that protein will help the body rebuild itself.

[mercyriver]

Day two

Well day two is done! My husband is about the same as yesterday. He is pretty exauhsted. He hasn't complained about nausea today, in fact he wanted chick-fil-a for lunch. Which was good after he didn't eat much yesterday.

Two days down!

Becki

[dadmo]

I'm really glad to see that the chemo got started. Congratulations on getting the first one over with.

[mercyriver]

Yes, we do have a portable DVD player that my husband is taking.

First day went fairly well. My husband is quite worn out and was a bit light headed early.

1 day down....

Becki