Another cycle has started after a 3 week period. During that period I experienced some dramatic
side effects and some light discomfort at times. It is strange as a pattern has not developed in
this round with the exception of nausea, sleeplessness, diarrhea, constipation,
mild headaches, sneezing, lack of ambition and general malaise. These are normal reactions but the lack of
pattern and the frequency kept me on my toes for the 8 days following my last
treatment. It seems that the recovery
time takes longer with each treatment.
While reviewing my last entry I spotted an omission on my
part. On March 20th I also
had some time with Dr Jonker to follow-up on my blood pressure and a routine
chat about my inconveniences caused by the treatment. He seemed to be happy with the blood pressure
thing as he raised my Amlodipine a little bit.
He also confirmed my next CT for mid June. Otherwise stay the course with no real change
in schedule and prognosis.
On week two I was strong enough and felt collected enough to
make a short visit to Florida to see some of our Lake Bernard snowbirds. I visited with Bruce and Alison and enjoyed
the company of Allan and Pam from the lake during my 6 days at Reddington Beach. The weather, golf, food and drink, shopping
and visiting were all l great and fun.
The golf is always fun but I seem to adding strokes to get around the
golf course. I have to work on that. Freddi flew down after work on Friday to get
some sun and do some visiting also. I was very happy that she could get away
from work to make that happen. Bruce and
Alison are gracious hosts and I enjoyed their new arrangement on the 6th
floor overlooking the ocean. On one evening
as the sun went down, I commented to Bruce that Freddi and I have been watching
sunsets in Hawaii for years in search of the elusive “green flash” that
sometimes accompanies the sun dropping into the ocean. So we watched the sun drop while we had
cocktails down by the pool. Bang, there
it was just as the sun was about to be extinguished or disappear over the
horizon. It really is a green
flash. It was reported on local TV as it
does not happen often. I was happy about
that as we were having cocktails you know.
Take that off the bucket list but Freddi still needs to see this phenomena. The return trip on Sunday night got us back
to Ottawa at 2 AM on Monday. Just in
time for a brief sleep before Freddi had to go to work.
Week three was my bonus week and I managed to fill the week
with some must dos and some can do things that are on the perpetual list. I did some research on bathroom materials and
scouted out the shops for things like tiles and plumbing parts. So the week was not wasted but really there is
little visible progress on that project. It was nice to have the extra 7 days where I
can enjoy food and beverages freely without any nausea.
Monday of this week I made my usual visit to the blood-letters
and had a good visit. They are efficient
and fun as they know their clientele quite well. I waited during the balance of the day to
hear if my WBC was sufficiently strong to undertake my treatment. I was particularly concerned as I had
developed a cold and I figured my immune system was busy elsewhere. The dreaded phone call never came and by 4 pm
I was committed to attending my 10:30 treatment.
When I arrived at QCH there were a few things that required
some attention. The nurse was concerned with my cold combined with a just over
the limit WBC count. That required a
call to Dr Jonker to get his opinion as to whether to proceed or not. His advice was to go ahead if I felt strong
enough. My interest is to keep my
schedule intact and make sure that the 5 stomach shots are effective in keeping
my WBC count up there. We started the
treatment close to noon. That meant that
I did not get out of there until 2:30 pm.
I then did a couple of stops to pick up essentials and then drove home
for some rest. Well the delay put me
into rush hour in Ottawa/Hull and I did not get home until about 5 pm. I was tired
so I took up a position in front of the TV and watched some Netflix series. Freddi came home and we had a nice dinner
catching up on channel TV series that we have recorded. The evening went by quickly and Freddi went
to bed at her usual time. I stayed up as
the steroid in my treatment does not let me sleep until early morning. I am caught up on my local series TV
programs.
Today I am lying low and close to the bathroom and tomorrow
I will go to town to have my Chemo bottle removed. That is when the fun begins as the body is
confused and does not know how to react – or so it seems. Regardless I am looking forward to the
weekend WBC boosting needles and some relaxing time with Tara-Lee, Kaia and
Freddi during the Easter weekend.
I hope everyone enjoys the upcoming weekend and thank you
for dropping in. Feel free to drop a
line if you have any questions or observations about any of this stuff.
Be well and happy ..... with love Paul
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