This ^ is for Chigau – I already have the daisies!
Today is the first day I have not had to be in town all bloody day. Hospital, Cancer Center, Hospital, Pain Clinic. I have a host of new meds, some for the sciatica, which are helping, but basically, the most helpful thing there is rest, which I won’t be getting much of at all. I have been cleared for radiation & oral chemo. I picked up most of my oral chemo meds; the experimental drug I pick up on Tuesday, when I start radiation. The schedule is going to get crazy fast: I have to be in town Monday through Friday for the next five weeks. Blogging might get a tad erratic, to say the least. Rick and I will be staying in town on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
There is some very good news: my tumor markers have gone from 11.9 to 3.6. Yay me. I wish to hell I could skip radiation. This week, I had my ‘cradle’ molded and fitted. Before you start radiation, you’re placed in the scanner, with a sort of plastic bag under you from your waist to past your feet. The edges are filled like a bean bag, and the technicians roll and mold this all around you, then the air is sucked out, and it forms a hard plastic mold. You lay down in this cradle each time you’re there for treatment. If you choose to have this done with shoes on, you have to wear the same shoes every time. I also had my tats done, not at all like an actual one. Picked up Aquaphor for burns and other relevant stuff.
Met my new oncologist, a very cheerful and enthusiastic person. We quite like them. I’ll probably have to be spending a bit of time in a wheelchair when in town, all the walking involved won’t do the sciatica any good. Oh, that’s right, I have all this paperwork I have to go through and start filling out a ‘pill count’ diary for the oral chemo and experimental; christ, I almost forgot all about that. My research person and I had a good moan about how pointless this type of paperwork is; I could be giving the pills to my dog and still fill out the paperwork like I was taking them and all, but this is going to be “drown yourself in paper” time. I also have to remember to take the experimental drug with me every other week, so a pill count can be done. Again, pointless.
Now, I’ll try and get a bit of blogging done!
Lovely! Thanks Caine.
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Just think of all that paperwork as keeping the bean-counters counting.
If they were idle they’d probably just get into trouble.
Chigau:
Aye, that’s all it is, too.
Paperwork, the bane of civilisation.
Hope you will get some rest. How the fuck are people fighting cancer supposed to do more work than people without?
“a very cheerful and enthusiastic person”
I hate people like that.
Yay fo the test results showing measurable improvement. Pitty about all the misery you have to go through. And paperwork on top of that. I loathe paperwor even in the best of times.
That painting is great -- the spheres (bubbles?) really pop out.
Glad to hear there is some measurable improvement.
Yay for the progress. Concurring Giliell with rest and recuperation. As for paperwork, aaargh, while it may be the dietary fiber of the civilization, still I’d be happy with a bit less of that shit.
Death by papercut. Not fun. I hope you manage to get decent rest on your new schedule.
Yay for the drop in tumour markers! Glad you quite like your new oncologist, it makes such a difference if you get on with your doctor. Sorry the schedule is going to be so crazy and I hope you manage to get enough rest in between all of the treatments.
I’m very happy to hear about your tumor markers going down! Not so happy to hear about your radiation schedule, five weeks? Goodness, my mother had “only” two weeks (10 sessions) and it felt like forever. Please get all the rest you need between the radiation and the pointless paperwork, and don’t worry about erratic blogging, rest is more important now. ♥
Yay for consensual human experimentation!
Thank you all so much! Oh, I forgot -- radiation comes with a pee schedule, too. You’re supposed to go into your scans with a ‘comfortably full bladder’, because that pushes the intestines up, and out of the way. So, you have your morning piss, then drink something 30 minutes before your scan. 30 minutes before my scan finds me in my car, on the way to town. So, this ought to be interesting. The other thing, which I explained to my technician, is that the last rounds of chemo left me without the early warning signals, which usually sound off around the ‘comfortably full’ stage -- I don’t get those anymore. I only know my bladder is full when I get the seriously urgent signals, as in “if you don’t get there in 10 seconds, you’re gonna piss yourself.” Gonna be fun figuring this one out.
Nightjar:
I have to do the full 28 days. I expect the first two weeks to be okay; the side effects don’t slam into you until after that time. It’s the last 3 weeks that will be hell. I did get to make my radiation doc laugh when I referred to the 5FU as five fuck you, where upon he said “I have been waiting for someone to say that!” I was amazed no one had. That’s nDakotans for you, polite to a fault.
*laughs* Should be its official name, I say!
But yeah, that has to be politeness at work, I’m sure it has occurred to someone else before. Fucking 5FU is just asking for that nickname.
Oh Caine I am sorry, I’ve had that problem ever since I had a somewhat complicated complete hysterectomy and it’s a fucking pain. I’ve gone back to the days of my childhood, when my mother used to say before we did anything ‘have you been?’, because by the time she got to me (number five) she had had far too much experience of being told ‘I don’t need to go’ and then having to try and find somewhere for a small boy, who was suddenly desperate, to go discreetly; so pretty much whenever I make myself a coffee, I go. Tedious and occasionally embarrassing.
I join the crowd, yay for those reduced markers!
I am with charly, paperwork is a pain in the arse, and you already have enough of that without the papertrail :(
Best wishes for a successfull radiation and oral chemo therapy!