Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Wed evening 12/22/10

Greetings to you all.  I am so happy to have this last chemo behind me. Finished this afternoon with one more return visit to the infusion center tomorrow morning. The side effects this time around were the worst so far. I totally lost Tuesday to sleep all day and night.  The physical side effects are I hope going to fade soon.  Forced myself to eat some pancakes sometime in the early hours this morning, then back to sleep for awhile before my last session today. I originally thought I was going to have this week off, so was surprised Monday morning with the chemo news.
  Anyway, I will have my first how we doing results in mid January. Dr is optimistic, and I admit it's easy to get into that mode. On the other hand to get to enthusiastic could lead to a real downer in January, so am trying to stay rather neutral about it.  Still have all of my hair, though am trying out various head  coverings. May ask for votes on your part. I think I can add pictures to the blog.  Suggestions so far range from the Scottish bonnet to the biker head scarf/bandana.  Now would be a good time to add your comments regarding head gear in the event I need to keep my head warm. Right now it's a struggle to keep my fingers, toes, mouth and nose warm. I wear socks all the time, gloves most of the time and am suppose to wear a scarf outside to cover my mouth and nose.  reminds me of being dressed by my mother when I was a child.
The good news is my clot factor has returned to a pleasant range(no more bloody noses for awhile).  Hoping to have dumped enough of the side effects to be able to enjoy Christmas with my grandson. 
John

Monday, December 20, 2010

monday dec 20, 2010

Hi all,
O.K. today was the first day in session three of chemo. have two days of chemo with the pump pack. then two days of side effects.  We're adjusting downward the amount of daily intake of the snake venom. Guess the initial level was to much. My clotting factor is up to 4.9 today.  needs to be down in the three plus.    We're approaching on of my how are we doing deadlines. (mid Jan).  However, must say That I am feeling soooo much better.  Interesting, my clot factor is very high, yet I'm still having a problem with the PICC line blood clot.  Hopefully over time  the snake venom will prevent any additional clots adding to the one that's already there and hopefully reduce the size of the clot over time.
  I wish you all seasons greetings.  and many thanks for the positive thoughts, prayers, food, rides to and from chemo sessions, and emergency room runs when necessary.   I am going to lick this thing!!
John

Monday, December 13, 2010

Mon Dec 13th, 2010

Hi all,
I wish you all a happy Saint Lucia day today. I had high hopes of waking up in the wee hours hearing the fine Santa lucia music and getting hot chocolate and lucia buns this morning.  But I guess as the next best thing, I got togo get my finger poked to see how well the snake venom is working-or not.  A nice rainy weekend, if you like that sort of cozy stay at home kind of weekend.  This should be a very quiet week for me. No more Drs all week.
John

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Sat Dec 11,2010

Hi all,
Saturday evening and A day not at the treatment center-yea.  Chemo side effects are with me as a reminder however, and they called last night to up my snake venom intake. Can't sneeze now with having a bloody nose-somewhat inconvient. On the upside. son, grandson and I did get our Christmas trees yesterday and mine is up-sort off, otherwise all is as well as it's going to get at this point. Lots of Dr stuff on Monday  however.
John

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Thursday Dec 9, 2010

Ahhhh,
Another fun filled day at the Cancer Treatment center.  Went in to have the empty pump pack removed, which was done successfully.  Then the debate began as to whether to pull the PICC line out.  Fortunately none of the nurses had an answer as to what would happen to the blood clot that was still there. So twas decided to ask the good Dr. Am home waiting for the call to go back or not. Apparently the episode Monday afternoon has made be famous in the treatment center(at least amoung the nurses who weren't there but have heard about it).  So, not sure what's next. The portacath requires some surgery to install. I sort of hope to get in one or two more chemo treatments  before we move to the portacath.  I do wonder what would I have done had the clot broke free in the middle of the night . Oh well, it didn't so at least I now will know what's going on and would haul myself to the E.R.
More tomorrow
John

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Wednesday Dec 8 2010

Good morning all,
Survived the night and all seems to be well. The blood thinner seems to be doing it's job.  The side effects are kicking in pretty good at this point. The pump pack will be done around 1:00 tomorrow, and so will end session 2. Hope to be back to normal by Monday or Tuesday.  It cheers me up to see so many people following along on the blog. Hope I'm not boring you to death(oopps-bad choice of words there perhaps).
John

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Tuesday December 7 2010

Hello my friends,
I started yesterday with my second round of chemo. It got off to a rocky start with a plugged up PICC line. They finally cleared the line with a clot dissolving drug and all went well fir the first 5 hours. At the end of the session with 15 minutes to go  a small blood clot broke off and plugged the vein.  Instantaneous  arm pain, swelling of the arm and rapid accummulation of blood in the arm. Fortunately, the Dr and staff were still in the building. Another application of the clot dissolver and things begin to slowly return to normal. Was sent to local hospital E.R. for ultra sound of the arm vein. Was there last night from 6:00pm to 10:30pm. Long story short. I have a blood clot that has formed around the site were the PICC line enters the vein. Treatment includes blood thinners.  The blood thinners were sufficient to allow the finish up today of yesterdays  chemo and the installation of the pump pack which continues until Thursday.  So I will be sick Friday Saturday and Part of Sunday. We will have to decide next week what to do about the clot and the pick line. I'm all for removing it and having a portacather installed.  Big fear of course is that while I'm home with the pump pack attached that another clot breaks off.
  Sorry if this all sounds unpleasent, but that's the way it is today.  next post will be Thursday when we remove the pumppack and hopefully make a decision about the PICC line and associated clot.
Hope you are all well.
John

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

wed, Dec 1-10

Good evening,
  Sorry to miss the dance class last night. All my perkiness of the prior two days caused me to over extend.  Around 2:00 yesterday I needed a nap. alas, it lasted  through the night with a few food breaks.  Combined with the long Dr's appointment, it just wasn'r my night to go out. I had thougth the Dr appoinment was only for an hour. took 2.5 hours. lab work to be done, clean up the PICC line site, actually had one of the more extensive physical exams than I've had since the Heart surgery. Anyway all appears to be well, and most of my side effects are going or gone. Next chemo is Monday Dec 6. It will be a repeat of the first with 5 hours of infusiion at the center and then a pumppack to go. The pumppack contains a nice package of chemo that continues to supply chemo to my system 24 hrs a day for two days.  The chemo really doesn't bother me so much, and the side effects are tolerable. But I feel so much better. Hope something positive is happening.
    Lets talk diet. I've read through severall books on what we eat and cancer. That said I'm ready to start the conversion. So any tasty meal hints involving brown rice, seaweed, grains would be most welcome. Looking forward to trting out Susans seaweed soup receipe.
John