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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Progress? It would seem so.

Yesterday was chemo day. The start of Cycle Two of my new regimen. The night before chemo I never sleep that good, because I know I am going to get my latest lab results.  Nervous time....always.  Plus yesterday morning I woke up with a headache, and that set off my paranoia that the cancer had migrated to my skull.

But everything is cool. The headache is gone, we can do a brain xray to calm me down, but Phan assured me I'm ok.  Lab Results?  Positive.  My hemoglobin (red blood cells) is up to 10.  Typically through this whole process I've been in 7s and 8s. Once I was down to 6. Normal folks are 13-15. So that's awesome improvement. It means my body is producing blood and the cancer isn't immediately chomping on it.

The bad protein in the urine is down to 3,000. I had been up to 6,400.  Last week it was 3,500. So more progress. Fuck yeah, mother fucker....myeloma Schmyeloma.

My creatinin is 7.5. Not good, my kidneys are still jacked. But I'm holding steady and still not on dialysis. That's good news.  My AV Shunt is healing....so maybe in 3 or 4 weeks I can get the tubes out of my chest. That'll be nice.

When I first started chemo back in May, it was a pretty nerve wracking experince.  I didn't have the port a cath, so drugs were given to me straight through an IV into the arm.  The nurses introduced me to a guy named Steve, who showed me his port a cath and explainned how it works and that it's not a big deal.  The thought of a permanent thing under my skin on the chest was scary.  But now, going to chemo is no biggie and the port a cath is way better than having a needle stuck in my arm every time. And now the tables have turned. There was a woman in chemo, and her husband, yesterday, who was getting her first treatment.  This time the nurses asked me if i could show the port a cath to them. She was going to be getting one, and naturally had a lot of questions.  I think I calmed her down a little bit. Funny, how cancer patients are all part of the same team, a fraternity if you will. And I don't even like fraternities.  Life is funny. But I feel good, it's a beautiful day and we seem to making progress.

Friday is more chemo and more treanda. Bring it on!

1 comment:

Berenson Oncology Success Rate

 Some reading about my myeloma specialist's success rate. A press release and an article from Targeted Oncology.