Chemo - Round 2, Cycle 5

Cycle 5, the penultimate treatment. I wish I could say I was going to miss it, but I'm not. I will miss the awesome nurses that work the treatment room. They make it so much better. So no matter where you are in treatment, better is always good.

The usual labs, nothing special there. Well, my PSA was down to 2.08, which is incredible. And pretty special. Just a little more than a year ago my PSA was at a monumental 5,306. Not bad at all buddy boy, not bad at all. (I love Henry on the TV show Oswald, and that's one of his classic lines.) Ok, where was I? My oncologist thinks I'm doing really well. The clinical trial coordinator things I'm doing pretty well. And I think I'm doing pretty well. So we have a unanimous consensus on that.

Scan results were good as well. The morning PET scan was cancelled due to the tracer not passing quality control. That worked out for the better as the schedule was really tight, if not impossible. CT and bone scans showed that things were still holding ground. At stage 4, that's really the best you can hope for, so I felt really good about that.

Treatment was just another day in the chair. I wish I could tell you more, but the cumulative effect of the chemo is catching up with me. I'm still going to work, but really when I get home it's hard to do much of anything. Fatigue is the main thing. I took it real easy during my nadir week, as I don't dare get sick again like last time. The nurse I had this time explained to me that the machine could be set to take 13 minutes to deliver the Benadryl, which has been the real bane of this round of chemos.

Cycle 4 Recap

As I had predicted, my previous treatment (cycle 4) started hitting my harder. This was the first time I had ever gotten sick durning the nadir period. Other than that, nothing unpredictable. All the normal throbbing aches and pains in the ankles and legs. The peripheral neuropathy more pronounced. Week 1 was typical in that I felt fine after chemo on Monday, as well as all of Tuesday and Wednesday. The aches kicked in on Thursday, which is also typical. Metal mouth started on Friday. Week 2, nadir week, I definitely felt the fatigue. And on Tuesday I felt something was not right. I was having hot flashes followed by the chills. I was constantly taking my shirt on and off. Or I should say shirts. It's winter here and cold, so I have a t-shirt and a flannel. So it was the flannel that saw the action. And on Monday and Tuesday I had terrible brain fog. On Friday I felt so bad that I went in for a checkup at the cancer center.

I was at the cancer center around noon. First was labs and about an hour wait to see the PA. (Physician's Assistant) I was just out of it, so I feel like I really didn't answer her questions very well. But she was patient and very kind, and just let me ramble as I needed. My white blood cell count was low, which was to be expected. 1 point something. She also determined that I was dehydrated, which no doubt I was. So she sent my upstairs for a saline drip.

I was there by myself, and even though I still felt pretty miserable, I had the greatest nurse. I think she was a little bit of everything I needed to feel better and have faith in humanity restored. I think she was yet another guardian angel. Can you have ore than none? Anyway, that's another blog post.After six hours at the cancer center, I was ready to go home. It took a day or so to feel better, but by Sunday, I was feeling back to normal.Week 3 was pretty standard. The white blood cells are building up and the immune system is getting stronger. Generally during week 3 I feel human again. I try to eat well and exercise a lot more so I'm all ready for the next cycle.

Chemo - Round 2, Cycle 4

So we start the back half of treatment in the first week of the new year. And back to what I consider the normal schedule: 9:00 a.m. labs, 9:40 a.m. appointment with my oncologist, and chemo at 10:30 a.m.

Well, not quite normal. The cancer center was incredibly busy, I imagine partly due to the holidays and things were running behind.

My wife met me in the “small” exam room and we had a bit of a wait. I never mind as my oncologist is very attentive to all her patients. Anyway, it was probably about 10:15 or so before we met with my oncologist.

Fortunately my labs looked good and I didn’t have a lot of questions. My scans also came back good. Or really as good as they could be. No progression for the most part, and some mets have gotten smaller. But there are a LOT of mets. I asked how many there were and she really couldn’t quantify it as pretty much my whole spine was black in the scan, which means there are lots and lots of mets.

My previously swollen lymph nodes (only one or two) had shrunk and my prostate has been getting smaller too. That I can tell because peeing is a lot easier. Yeah, the Flowmax helps, but I can tell the difference with my prostate. One thing I didn’t get at my appointment was my PSA, as it wasn’t ready yet.

We made it to the third floor for chemo just a few minutes late. The waiting room was packed. I did have a longer wait than usual, but nothing outlandish. It was nice to just sit. I did some 4-7-8 breathing exercises and then just enjoyed the wait. Not too long and the pager buzzed and I was on my way in.

This time I got a room with a window. Normally that’s a good thing, but it was cold outside and the windows were drafty. Reminds of a time when I got a rental car that was a convertible, which I suppose is a good thing (despite being terrified of them), but it was December, bitter cold, and it was snowing.

I got my warm blanket and I was happy. The good news is the nurse who would be administering my chemo was this really nice (and very thorough) lady from Ethiopia who I’ve had before, I think during my first round. This is my 10th chemo and I didn’t start blogging about them until this time around so I’m not really sure.

There was some delay in getting the medicine from the pharmacy, so we didn’t get started until about 11:30, an hour later than scheduled. Not a big deal, I enjoyed just sitting. I asked for a sack lunch, but apparently there weren’t any. The Ethiopian nurse brought me some snacks, which was very kind of her. Some peanut butter crackers and a little pack of shortbread. And later she found a frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwich that I saved for later. And my wife brought some Tippins pumpkin pie. Not sure what it is about pumpkin pie and chemo, but for me, the two go hand in hand. My oncologist’s nurse called and let me know my PSA had gone down to 2.8! I can’t remember the last time it was under 3.

Another nurse came in to do the pre-chemo drip. When I mentioned the Benadryl just wiping me out, she said she would administer it to me in one-minute intervals over the course of five minutes. Ok, this nurse deserves an award of some kind. This made a huge difference. It took five or ten minutes before I even felt it. And I simply felt groggy, which is way better than falling asleep in a matter of seconds. I nodded of here and there, but I was with the world for the duration. And when we left I was cognizant and could walk out on my own two legs. Still, it’s 7:00 p.m. and I’m going to bed.