First Round Systemic: Complete
On Monday evening, I got my first round of systemic chemo, which is the chemo to fight the likely leukemia cells that are floating around in my blood stream and setting up shop in my bone marrow. The drugs were Vincristine and Daunorubicin. They gave me some lethargy and nausea but nothing a little extra sleep and Zofran couldn't handle. I've been getting Vincristine once a month as part of my maintenance schedule, so I'm used to dealing with the side-effects of that one. Daunorubicin I haven't gotten since my first induction round 3 years ago. It's a pretty freaky looking red one, that I didn't look at as it titrated into my body. Luckily I had Monday Night Football and the Atlanta Falcons to keep me occupied.
I'm also doing a couple days of high-dose cortical steroids, dexamethasone, which does all kinds of weird stuff to the body. So far side-effects have been manageable (insomnia, muscle wasting, OCD-like tendencies), and I'm only taking two-day pulses, which is way better then the seven days straight I took during intensification 2.5 years ago. I might moon-face up a little bit, even with only two days of the drug, but hopefully not too much.
Since I've been going to the SCCA for 3 years now, I've gotten to know many of the staff and nurses there. Some of them are curious why they are seeing more of me lately, but it's always awkward to have the conversation that I relapsed. I typically avoid it, and say some half-truths, like "changing up the schedule this week, you know how it goes!" I figure that they'll put two and two together eventually. But sometimes I find that after beating around the bush too long, it just makes things worse, so saying it right-away and getting it over with is a decent strategy too. But I prefer to not have that conversation with them at all, since it's not a fun one to have. With the nurses it gets doubly awkward, because all my information is in my file, and by them asking, that means they didn't read the latest notes, so then its just more awkward.
In other news, my new Seattle Seahawks hat came in the mail today, which adds to my growing collection of snap-backs. I played golf with Jonathan on Tuesday morning and sank a 20-foot putt from the fringe for my first Birdie on the par-3 course we've been playing. My mom is coming into town this weekend, and looking forward to seeing her.
The new 2015 Seahawks hat which arrived in the mail today.
I'm also doing a couple days of high-dose cortical steroids, dexamethasone, which does all kinds of weird stuff to the body. So far side-effects have been manageable (insomnia, muscle wasting, OCD-like tendencies), and I'm only taking two-day pulses, which is way better then the seven days straight I took during intensification 2.5 years ago. I might moon-face up a little bit, even with only two days of the drug, but hopefully not too much.
Since I've been going to the SCCA for 3 years now, I've gotten to know many of the staff and nurses there. Some of them are curious why they are seeing more of me lately, but it's always awkward to have the conversation that I relapsed. I typically avoid it, and say some half-truths, like "changing up the schedule this week, you know how it goes!" I figure that they'll put two and two together eventually. But sometimes I find that after beating around the bush too long, it just makes things worse, so saying it right-away and getting it over with is a decent strategy too. But I prefer to not have that conversation with them at all, since it's not a fun one to have. With the nurses it gets doubly awkward, because all my information is in my file, and by them asking, that means they didn't read the latest notes, so then its just more awkward.
In other news, my new Seattle Seahawks hat came in the mail today, which adds to my growing collection of snap-backs. I played golf with Jonathan on Tuesday morning and sank a 20-foot putt from the fringe for my first Birdie on the par-3 course we've been playing. My mom is coming into town this weekend, and looking forward to seeing her.
The new 2015 Seahawks hat which arrived in the mail today.
What the hat covers: the Ommaya port and scar from surgery. Hair is growing in fast, so that is good, eventually my hair will cover it, and it will be barely noticeable. The scar is healing up well.
So glad that you are tolerating the side effect well and thanks for the great updates. You have a whole team pulling for you in Atlanta!
ReplyDeleteWe're praying for you in the Asian side of the world. I really like the way you write--it sounds just like you.
ReplyDeleteAunt Grace