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7 april, tuesday had first chemotherapy treatment of six (with 3 week intervals), at northcoast oncology in eureka. following some advice, i drank a gallon of water the day before, being very hydrated dilutes the toxicity. sounds like a lot, but wasn't really that hard to do. but perhaps next time i'll begin earlier in the day, 'cos that nite i dreamed i peed & peed & peed (felt so good!), then of course woke up to find i'd wet the bed. was up at 3am stripping the bed & finding a sleeping bag to finish the nite. ellen came & picked me up to take me to eureka. beginning at 10:30, infusion went uneventfully, once they got the line in anyway. had to try 3 times, eek. my veins always please nurses, very visible, but turns out they have lots of strong valves which the needle bumped up against & couldn't get past, couldn't go in far enuf. downside of a healthy circulatory system. i was only patient that day, & there were 2 nurses in the room the whole time, i felt very well taken care of. jan dropped by to visit for awhile, then tracy came when i called at 4:30, & took me home with her to spend the nite there. i promised not to pee on her new sheets. |
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11 april -- day 5! these first few days went pretty much as was predicted... days 1 & 2 not bad, thanks to steroids in the "pre-meds" mix; days 3 & 4 bad, felt like shit actually; day 5 starting to feel better, yay! no throwing up tho! so glad. hope that continues to be true, tho of course effects are cumulative & future treatments may produce more pronounced side effects & take longer to recover from. but this time, whenever nausea nudged, i just took a little nibble of a marijuana cookie a friend gave me, & the nausea passed. |
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13 april today one of my favorite
kinds of springday here... |
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22 april -- day 16 earth day! spent the day gardening, praising the planet by digging in the dirt with my hands. feeling normal, as long as i don't work too hard. this whole 3rd week has been good, hoping for similar recovery after other treatments! working this week, 3 afternoons as usual, looks like i'll be able to work 1 week out of three, if i'm lucky. bigdeal today - hair starting to come out!  i'm inviting folks to drop in & say hi on sunday, my last day of recovery before next treatment, looks like it'll be sunny... |
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3 may -- day 7 after second treatment i think this week was worse than the week of first treatment, but the weather could have been a factor -- raining & cold. spent most of the week in bed, after steroid meds wore off, but up a lot today for short periods, tired immediately. no rashes this time, but starting to get tingling in fingers, looks like i get peripheral neuropathy after all, was hoping not to. hair's almost gone, can see the shape of my head, & need to wear a hat when i'm outside.  was disappointed this weekend to miss a couple VERY favorite spring things to do -- blue ox mayday festivities on saturday, & arcata interfaith gospel choir prayer breakfast today. fooey! & now this next week is my "nadir", the period my immune system will bottom out, so i'll be mostly staying home to avoid being exposed to germs, no movies or eating out. good thing i like staying home! hope it's a sunnier week... |
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17 may -- day 21 after 2nd treatment looks like these 3rd weeks are going to be fine! at least this one was. went to work for 4 afternoons, & was glad to be there. felt pretty normal, but of course only if i didn't try to do anything strenuous. emailed local folks to drop by this afternoon if they were out & about, another 3rd sunday open garden, gonna do that everytime to reward myself for getting thru another cycle. AND if i keep on schedule (things like too-low blood counts & infection can mean postponed treatment), the 3rd sunday after my LAST treatment will be day before my birthday, so for sure it'll be a party.  |
