I didn't sleep well on Sunday night,
Monday morning. I know it was the anticipation of another round of
chemo. I slept fitfully. I didn't dwell on the chemo itself, I
thought of judo all night long.
We got on the road about 9:00 am for
the trip into Rapid City. I had a bottle of Mocha Smoothie Barium
something or another that I was supposed to drink at 9:40 am for a CT
scan at 10:40 am. I had previously tried the vanilla flavored one,
which was awful, the Mocha was better but only marginally so. It
took me about 10 minutes to swallow about a pint of the thick liquid.
We got to the hospital, got checked in, and escorted to the
Imagining Waiting Room, and shortly thereafter shunted into the CT.
They got the line installed in one wrist, laid down and the scan
began, it takes only about 20 minutes for the entire procedure.
Then we had some time before a blood
draw was to be taken so we went out in the parking lot and checked
out the solar eclipse with a pair of paper plates with a pin hole in
one... it was about 10;15 and there was about 25% of the sun in
eclipse. We drove to lunch at Arby's and after that did some
shopping at the drugstore. As we were coming out of the store a nice
SUV pulled up, window down, a young woman, mid 30s was waving a pair
of solar glasses, saying, “Have you seen the eclipse? Do you have
a pair of glasses? You don't, then you really need to see the
eclipse through these glasses.” So we borrowed her glasses and
looked at the sun, then I showed her my two plates and she was pretty
impressed. It was a short, pleasant meeting in the parking lot with
a complete stranger.
We returned to the hospital parking
lot, it was about 11:30 am and there were a lot of people milling
around in the parking lot, obviously enjoyed the spectacle of the
eclipse. Our 97% eclipse was due at 11:50 am. As I was standing
outside the car with my paper plates we were approached by a couple
of guys and they struck up a conversation. They were taken with the
paper plate method of viewing the eclipse. Then a guy came over with
a welding helmet that he shared with everyone in our small group.
Then a women came by with a pair of glasses that she gleefully passed
around the now small group of people standing there. It was so nice
to see that everyone was exited about the science of celestial
movements.
The eclipse came and slowly started its
decline. We were drawn back into the Cancer Center for laboratory
work, a visit with the doctor and my third infusion.
The doctor's visit went well. The
laboratory tests were good. The CT scan showed that my tumor had
either remained the same size or was shrinking slightly, anyway both
of those were good news. After today's infusion there will be one
more infusion with the Carbo Platin drug and then after that I will
be receiving only one chemotherapy drug, Prematrexid as a maintenance
drug, again every 21 days for the next 2 to 3 years.
After the first infusion I got pretty
sick on the 3rd and 4th days. It really feels
like a bad hangover, except that I missed the fun part the night
before. I got out of bed but didn't get off the couch all day. They
had given me a schedule for taking an anti-nausea drug, two a day for
6 days. The pharmacist advised me when I picked up the drug to “stay
ahead of it.” We drove on the 5th day to Pierre, SD and
spent the night, if I felt better on Thursday we would drive to Fargo
for my 50th year class reunion... we made it to the class
reunion.
For the 2nd infusion the
doctor modified the anti-nausea drug regime to 4 pills a day and I
felt much better, not 100% but maybe 90%, I was able to read a book
and felt like getting up and moving around. The “hangover” is
still there but it is a lighter one. The hangover, with pills or
not, starts tapering off after a couple of days and lasts about a
week. Then I feel pretty good for about two weeks.
Third infusion was nothing different
than the previous two.
I am still dealing with the new
normal... coughing, especially when talking, laughing, getting
excited or changing positions, like from sitting to laying. I am
short of breath, walking 5 miles seems like a distant dream, I can
barely walk up the hill from the underside of the deck. I did go
rock climbing but had to hang on the rope after 20 feet of climbing
to catch my breath and again at the top of the rock. New normal
sucks but not much I can do about it.
We bought a used riding lawnmower so
Carol can mow the lawn easily. It is too dusty for me to cut the
grass and I have to wear a mask if I am going to do any gardening.
But not going to complain too much, the
alternative is much worse.
All you all take care of yourselves.
Love,
Van
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