Hospital, Chemo, Hospital again

So, I once again had a high temperature, had to go to A&E, wait around for hours, get xrayed, tagged and poked, I was admitted. My temp went up to 39, then after numerous different anti-biotics it dropped down to normal.
I was in from Tuesday till Friday (Chemo day) and seemed pretty good on friday, so they said to go ahead with chemo 8 of 8 (yes, final CHOP). Chemo went okay and I was told that I could go home but had to come back in on saturday and sunday for an anti-biotic injection. All good.

So, I went home, came in on Saturday. Felt pretty good for a post chemo day. I then went in to hospital later and they took 3 goes to get a canula in, ow, then I did the anti-biotic and went home. Then Sunday came along. Not so great. I woke up and felt rubbish. Spent all day in bed with my stomach doing loop-the-loops and feeling ill. I checked my temperature and it was 39, so it was back to hospital. They still had my bed free, ready for injections, so back in I went. There I remained until today.
Free again, free again! The taste of creamed potatoes still is stuck in my mouth and the smell of disinfectant lingers too, but I'm out and feeling okay. So there you go. Chemos done, got a Rituximab to have in 3 weeks and then my first scan. No more CHOPs, hooray and hurrah!

Chemo #3

Chemo #3 went down okay. It took a lot less time than before. The Rituximab took 2 hours to go in and the actual chemo was about an hour and a half. Unfortunately, it was really busy at the day unit, so I didn't get to see my usual consultant and had to see a stand in doctor. I went through to see him but he had his face glued to my notes and other than the few words he spoke when he made brief eye contact he spent the rest of the time mainly scribling away in silence. Kind of rubbish. He asked a few bland questions, misanswered a few of mine (i.e. gave me answers that I had to query until he answered them properly or I gave up), also he seemed to have had a major, successful, personality bypass operation. He made me think of a very dull version of John Major!

(a pic of John oozing his usual charismatic presence)

I had to nick name this consultant character, Doctor Charisma. This name got back to my normal consultant who was suitably amused. We then had a quick chat about some discoveries regarding statins and Rituximab (don't ask, I'm just interested in all the technicalities and new discoveries) and then I was good to go home.

During my time there, I spoke to a couple of other fellow Lymphoma friday participants and eaves dropped on another. The main thing was that I was a lot better off that some of the others there. One guy, a 37 year old bloke, had Lymphoma in his bone marrow and pretty much everywhere, another was recently diagnosed, with a delay of several weeks due to a bit of a botch up by an ENT consultant and had Lymphoma in his abdomen, neck and all over. Not nice.

I confirmation from Doc Charisma, that the nodes in my neck are now gone (oh yes! Be seeing you, losers!) and that the discharge notes from my time at Hotel Torbay (the Torbay hospital I ended up in over easter), confirmed that my chest mass had shrunk from 10cm to 5cm, which has me a very happy chappie.

Dr. C did not mention my scan at the end of cycle 3 and I forgot to ask (my head was a bit buzzy with pre-meds though), so I've emailled my normal consultant "The Moule-meister" (he is called Dr. Moule and is very good) and hopefully he can cofirm the details.

Post chemo #2

So, a few days since my last post. Just felt knackered and couldn't be bothered to fire up the laptop. Feel somewhat more human today.

Chemo day went ok. I had my first infusion of Rituximab, which meant I was due a long day. I got there around 8.30 and they dosed me up with paracetamol, periton and some steroids, ready for the R. After 3 goes to get the needle in my hand properly (one came out, one missed and one was a bit leaky. Great), the Rituximab infusion started real slow and all went pretty well. As the infusion rate was speeded up (every 30 minutes) I started to go blotchy and they stopped and loaded me up again with periton and steroids and then kicked off again. During this time I had my check in with the doc and found my marker levels were normal but my white count was pretty low (but ok to continue). Last week it had been nuked and the two blood tests I had (post chemo and pre chemo) had it around the 1.0 mark, so it would have dropped between those days, but I don't know where to.

Weekend:
The saturday and sunday had me totally fatigued and with a headache. I felt like I was hung over but uber tired. I didnt leave my bed very much.

Monday-Tuesday:
Tired, tired and more tired. Really felt fatigued. On the plus side, the nodes in my neck started to become sore on monday and by wednesday had pretty much melted away! Yay! One down, one to go.

Wednesday-Thursday:
Same as monday and tuesday, but at night it was a bit crazy. I just couldn't sleep. Mad, fast thoughts running through my head, just like being a kid on Christmas eve! I reckon it was my body adjusting to the steroids withdrawl and sending me through the roof. I had to get up to pee every hour or so and then drink a load of water again. Mouth so dry. This dry mouth thing is eating my teeth up though. Lots of new cavities coming to town. Stupid cancer.

Friday (today):
I feel almost human again. Somewhat tired but not unmanageable, I don't want to stay in bed. My weight is down, so looks like its eatsville time.

Pre-Chemo cycle #2 day

Yesterday I went in to give some blood for my pre-chemo blood test. I had a very jolly and slightly mad nurse taking blood this time. She gave me a mini lecture on the necessity of a parent to be over-protective. Kind of amusing in a weird sort of way.

Tomorrow is chemo #2. This time I'll be getting Rituximab as well. This means I need to be there early, as the first application of it can take up to 4 hours! Apparently people can react badly to it, e.g. allergic reactions etc. If this happens they'll treat the symptoms and then continue. As my consultant said, "it may take a while, but no matter what, you're getting it!". Worked for me.

I'm a bit nervous of my blood test results. Over the last week my cough has returned, although not as bad as originally, but it is getting worse day by day. Also, the itchy leg thing that I had before has also started to come back. I know I can't do anything about it and I'll find out tomorrow.

And finally... The "Killing Cancer" T-Shirt I had made arrived. The design looks like this:

People are great!

People are great! I have been receiving loads of well wishing from people I din't really know, via my other blog on bet trading (http://bettrading100to100000.blogspot.com) and today I got a message from a friend who I used to work with a year ago. he said that the guys at the company I used to work at had heard about my condition (my wife had been sending round email updates of the story so far) and they had had a collection and bought me a Nintendo DS to keep me entertained whilst going through chemo etc. What a cool gesture. You guys rock! I was really touched. They popped round today and we had a good catch up and I took possession of my new toy. Yay! See, cancer is good for something!
Anyway, I woke up this morning, feeling pretty good again. Obviously, I don't feel like normal, but pretty good considering. I took my last dose of steroids, so tomorrow morning may be the test of energy levels moving forward until the next steroid pulse.
I've noticed some stinging from the lymph nodes on my neck, where the unwanted house guests are living (eviction time boys!), which I'm treating as a good sign. The nodes feel a bit softer, but that could be my imagination. The cough that had been bugging me so much is gone appart from a few light weight normal coughs occasionally, so that's pretty good.

As a brief aside, I have been taking a few supplements that I did some research on and discussed with my consultant, who gave it the okay. I don't know if these may be part of the reason for my current "easy ride" but I'll mention them anyway.
Basically, I'm taking coenzyme Q10's, with the intention of protecting my heart against some of the doxorubicin effects and it is also a powerful anti-oxidant and energy giver to normal cells.
I'm also taking a maintenance dose of Beta Glucan, with the hope that the macrophages it should be stirring up can go to work munching on those dying Lymphoma B-cells. I'm going to move the dose up when I get my next chemo session, as I'll then be getting Rituximab and I have read a fair amount about Beta Glucan enhancing the cancer killing effect of it. My consultant seems pretty happy with what I'm doing and has only mention a couple of supplements to avoid, so I'm happy.