Blizzard in progress, Ativan

Wow - We are having a major blizzard here in Chicago. It started snowing at 1 pm, and at 8pm a neighbor was stuck in their car in a drift in front of our house. A Neighbor got stuck in their driveway. It is supposed to snow all night.

Holly got my radiation treatment scheduled early today, so we were in and out before the snow started. I also got the weekly blood work done today too. The radiation department said that they will be closed tomorrow, so we will just have one more day tacked on to the end of the six week cycle.

This last week had had to find the right dose of laxative, the chemo causes issues in this area. Too much of a good thing can be real bad. I think I found a good balance at about 1/4 of what the doctor recommended.

I also discovered how well one of the drugs I have been taking, Ativan, works. I was supposed to take Ativan for about 30 days until a SSRI drug took effect to help me sleep. I started ramping down on Ativan, and lost all ability to sleep. I felt just miserable all day. I suspected it was the Ativan, so I took one two hours before bed. My headache and miserable feeling disappeared in an hour, and I was able to sleep all night.

Given that, I asked the doctor to stop the SSRI and just let me take the Ativan. They said this was not a good idea, and I should just keep taking the SSRI. This is very frustrating. The original complaint was inability to sleep, the doctor says to take SSRI, but Ativan for first 30 days until SSRI takes effect. I find that the Ativan not only helps me sleep, but makes me feel a lot better when I am awake. The doctor says that is not a good idea. They want me to stop taking the drug that works and keep taking the one that as far as I can tell does nothing. The doctor gave me another 30 days of Ativan to give us time to straiten this out.

1 week IMRT/Chemo under my belt, good day/bad day cycle

I have now completed over a week of the IMRT treatment with concurrent Chemotherapy. No serious side effects, I feel pretty good most of the time. As the doctor predicted, the main side effect, exhaustion, comes in cycles. For 2-3 days in row, I move around real slow. Everything seems hazy, and I usually have a headache. I spend most of the day in bed. For the next 2-3 days, my energy returns, and I can actually get things done, like update my blog, straiten out insurance issues, pay bills, etc.

I made a small mistake with my medication. One of the side effects of the Chemo is constipation. When this came on, I took some Dulcolax. My body did not like that at all. I had bad stomach cramps and gas for two days; soo bad, it would keep me up at night. I wrote to my doctor and my sister about this, and my sister pointed out that I was supposed to take Miralax, a much milder medication for this.

I also had the first blood test this week to make sure my body is handling the Chemo OK, the doctor said the results looked OK.

I have been eating OK, and exercising (treadmill) almost every day. No hair loss yet, but my scalp is sensitive to the touch, kinda feels like a dull sunburn.

All in all, so far so good.

Bad day

Had a real bad headache today. Couldn't do anything...not even nap. I hope tomorrow is better.

First couple days of treatment

I had a meeting with Dr Diaz on Thursday. I asked about the 'dose' of radiation I am getting. I am getting 180 cGy per day. They also gave me some lotion for expected skin irritation, and reminded me that my hair is going to start falling out around the treatment area. They also provided some handouts about radiation therapy. I eluded to 'a point of no return' in a earlier post, and this feeling was reinforced by the handouts. They pointed out about 5 serious health related issues that need to be periodically checked for 'for the rest of your life'. It is slowly sinking in that I will never be completely free of this.All this doom and gloom is rarely in the forefront of my mind, but it seems to eat at you. I still have panic attacks even when I am not thinking about this.

Holly and I took the kids with us on Friday to the radiation treatment.  This was a mixed blessing. We saw Dr. Marsh walking out, and he stopped and talked with us for about 20 minutes. He told us all about his family and how is moving out to Arizona. He then reassured us (including the kids) that they are working very hard on my case and was optimistic that everything will be OK. Before all that happened, the kids saw all the signs and brochures with the 'c' word. They must have asked 10 times, 'Daddy, you don't have cancer, do you?'.

The only side effect from the Chemotherapy I have been having so far is dry mouth. I have been eating OK, and my stomach feels fine. Per the doctors advise, I take the anti-nausea 1 hr before bed, then the Chemo right before bed. This works nice. I am still trying to work out with the doctor what to do about my headaches. Other than that, if I get a nap in, I am feeling pretty good. Go Bears. 

Two Firsts...

Yesterday I had the first (of 30) IMRT radiation treatments, and my first dose of Chemotherapy.
We showed up for the IMRT appointment 30 mins early, and they called us 45 mins late. That caused a lot of anxiety to build up waiting all that time. Once I got in there, they took about 20 minutes making sure I was lined up properly, then the actual treatment was only 6 minutes. The treatment is painless, and sounds kinda like a Pink Floyd Song. This pattering sound rotates my head around while changing loudness. Kinda sounds like people running around me while strumming on a washboard.   

Emotionally, there was a kind of sinking feeling, or a point of no return. This treatment should help, and might cause more serious problems. Up till that moment, I was facing that prospect. Now I have passed that decision.

The first night of Chemo passed with little fanfare too. Stood there with the pills in front of me for a couple minutes, facing the same feeling. I took them and had an upset stomach that night, but it was also a very stressful day.

A couple of posts ago, I spoke of the mask they made to hold my head in place during radiation. I asked the Nurse to take some picks...here they are:

The tape with the marks line up with lasers on the machine to coordinate where my head is with respect to the radiation. My nose is much smaller when viewed in person without the mask.

Week 0 Mug Shot

To document any hair loss/skin issues from Chemo/Radiation, here is a mug shot of me at week 0, before any treatment. I think I look better from the back, do you think I should grow a beard?

Box'o Pills

It goes from a bottle of aspirin to this: