One Down, Five to Go

Sorry it's been a little while but we have had a lot of computer problems here at home. And my work has filters restricting access to blogs so I can't do anything there. Our desktop crashed and Scott has been working for several days on that, including getting a new hard drive, and for some reason, our laptop doesn't like me. Even now, I kept abending (there's an "old time" word from my programming days) so Cyndy had to log on to her account and access this blog through hers instead of mine. But I'm here now so let's get going.

Two weeks ago I had my first administration of my latest chemo treatment, oxiliplaten. I had to sit through a two hour IV feeding of this drug, right after the leucovorin, and then I got connected once again with my friend, the pump and fanny pack (for the 5FU drug). I only wear the pump for 46 hours now, instead of 96 in the past. I was very concerned about potential extreme sensitivity to cold and I was anxious to see what would happened. On Tuesday the only symptom seemed to be repeated hiccups. I wasn't expecting this so I went on line to see if this was a side effect of oxiliplaten and sure enough, it was. Then Tuesday night I started getting some chest pains and by Wednesday I just felt overall pretty bad so I called in sick. It's hard to explain how I felt but the simplest explanation is that I felt in no condition to do my job that day. Thursday morning was not much better but I did go into work and felt better by the afternoon. By then was the end of the 3 day period, the minimum time I was told the symptoms would last (at least at first - this may lengthen as the treatments proceed). The side effects I feared the most, the cold reactions, really failed to materialize. There were a couple of times when I was in the cold and took a deep breath and felt a pain in my chest, but that pain went away quickly each time. I never had any tingling or numbness in my fingers or toes that I was warned could happen and if they did, I needed to call Dr. Y, as my drug concentration would need to be adjusted. All in all I made it through OK and now just have five cycles left.

I was talking to a sales rep (Dennis) on the phone whom I have known for years and told him about my situation and he mentioned that a fellow sales rep of his (Doug) had had colon cancer a few years ago. I know Doug as well and was not aware of that. The next day I got a voice message from Doug and he mentioned that Dennis had told him about me and said that indeed he had colon cancer five years ago, had six months of chemotherapy, and has been cancer-free ever since. He also gave me his cell phone number and told me to call him whenever I wanted to talk about his situation, my situation, or whatever. I haven't called him yet, though I plan to soon, but I greatly appreciated his call and his offer. That's the type of thing I would like to do for other cancer patients in the future, to be sort of a one-man support group to others. Speaking of support groups, it was suggested that I might look on Facebook for possible cancer groups for trying to connect with. Sounds like a good idea and if I can ever get on the computer again and onto my Facebook page, I will definitely do that.

Tomorrow begins Cycle #2. I'm hoping and praying to deal with this like the first one, hopefully this time without taking time from work (I have virtually no time off left). Cycle #3 will be between Christmas and New Year's and my company is closed during that time so at least I can deal with this at home and not have to worry about taking any time off.

I'll keep you all updated on how things go with Cycle #2. Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers. God Bless You all.