Pile It On

Blimey, the prob with doing so well on the first cycle is that they increased the dose for the second cycle -went up dramatically by about 40%. Yikes. And dear me, did it hit pretty hard. Felt quite crappy afterwards and definitely turned me off my food -I eat a little but have little to no appetite. Making sure I eat high protein foods and drink my Ensure. Still quite anemic and have a low-ish white blood count, so risk of infection is always a concern. Hair is coming out by the handfulls -this happened last year then stopped and though I was very thin on top, I never went totally naked -in the tonsorial sense. This time though, I don't reckon I will be so lucky. I think I'll be an egghead by the end of September. Oh well, better bald and vertical than the alternative.

It never rains but what it pours. Went to see the doctor last week to see what was going on with the discomfort in my groin and the belly ache that I have developed. Nothing much came of that other than he believes the groin thing is related to the lymph node being swollen and pressing on a nerve and the belly ache probably due to the chemo upsetting my tummy. As a routine course, I gave a sample for a urinalysis. Well, wouldn't you know, turns out I have a staph infection, MRSA -not a very friendly little fellow. Is that just bloody brilliant or what. So on top of everything, we have this to deal with. Last Friday I went for my CT Scan and regular blood draw and they drew extra blood for a culture test to see if the MRSA is anywhere else, or colonised to the bladder.

This week, I got the scan and blood results -all absolutely F+*/*+g great news. The scan shows the lymph nodes have reduced and the tumour has gone down by about 10%. This is brilliant considering only 2 cycles, and the doc says that the second cycle really hasn't started to work much since this is a slow reaction drug. He was really excited and said he was looking forward to the next scan, and of course, we are just over the moon. Such a relief to know the chemo is working. And the blood culture showed negative -Phew! They would have admitted me if it was positive and I would have been stuck in hospital for a week or more on an IV antibiotic. So, for now it is colonised to the bladder and should, in all likelihood, stay there. I had the third cycle chemo this Tuesday and expect to be a bit shagged out over the weekend and early next week, if it follows the course of the second cycle. 

But enough of the lamenting -I put it in just for info. On to the funner stuff

So we actually did do some fun stuff. Went to a brill concert one weekend -B52's. What a great band, and they put on an excellent show The place was pretty mobbed considering it was drizzling for most of the time. Another day we went over to FI to see some friends and have a spot of dinner. The bloke makes a great tomato sauce, complete with sausages and meatballs, of which, Sue is quite envious. She didn't ask for the recipe but I thought of taking some home and having it analysed and giving it to her as a Christmas present. Note to self, that's a totally wally idea.

Went to a couple of BBQ's this past weekend and had a nice day planned Sunday for Sue's birthday. But, for the second year in a row folks, it rained. Unbelievable. So we had to go to plan B which was a lovely dinner with friends, and we still had fun and so all was good.

No beach for a couple of weekends now and I'm having withdrawal... I need some sun! And this coming weekend doesn't look like it's going to cooperate since a hurricane is heading up the East coast for the weekend. Just bloody marvellous.

I can't believe the summer is almost over. Where did it go? We did a fair bit and went to a few concerts and such, but it seems summer is vanishing like a fart in the wind. Talking of... no, let's not get into that. On the bright side, the fall is looming and we have fun going out East to the wineries and farms to get pumpkins and fruit pies. Of course at the wineries we get a little piddled, and they have music and we take food and it's quite a fun outing.

This fall we were planning to visit Dominic in Chicago, probably late September/October time, but with all this chemo rubbish going on doesn't look like it's going to happen -I think it would be a little too tiring for me. If he can sort it out with work, Dominic might come over to NY and we can do the winery thing. Something different and fun to do.

All in all I'm feeling pretty good and more so knowing things are working and improvement's are happening.

That's all for now.

Be well to All,
Chris