Apologies to All

So, I have been absolutely horrible at keeping up with my blog over the last couple of weeks. My second round of treatment has come and gone, and I just couldn’t motivate myself to post. I apologize to all, and let’s see if I can catch everyone up.

On Monday June 23, I checked back into Kadlec for my second of six cycles of chemotherapy treatments. After some confusion over whether I was going with a21-day or a 28-day cycle, we decided to stick with the planned course of action and roll in the 22nd day. Melissa was off all week before her summer preschool classes started, so she came down to take care of me for the week. We checked me into the hospital at 10:00 AM, and by 2:00 PM they had started with the Rituxan. This is the same drug that I’ve had each of the last couple of Mondays, and it is pretty much old hat for me at this point.

Starting on Monday night, I once again had the four 24-hour infusions of Etoposide and Doxorubicin. I got a little bit of a late start on everything, so they didn’t get me going until after 9:00 PM, which means that it is around this time each day that I am done and get to take a short break – enough time to take a shower, go for a short walk, etc. For the most part this all went pretty much as expected after the first round. I felt pretty okay for most of the week, except for Thursday. I felt really sick most of the day, and just could not bring myself to do anything. I was nauseous and tired, and my body ached all over. It was kind of an anomaly, though, as Friday I was feeling better. Very strange.

For the most part, Melissa and I just hung out in my hospital room and played games most of the week. We played Scrabble, as well as Cribbage and Golf, and another random card game called Rage. I pretty much dominated Melissa at Scrabble, but she got her revenge in the other games, including a beatdown on me and my parents in a card game called Phase 10. We had a good time just hanging out, as well as watching Season Five of 24. Suzi, a friend of mine from when I first moved to the Tri-Cities, stopped by on Friday bearing a smile and a gift of gummy worms. It was great to see her, as she is currently taking classes at WSU so I don’t see her much. She is working for the summer for us, and she brought warm wishes from everyone at the office.

On Saturday I had the final drug infused – Cytoxin. This drug makes me a little nauseous, but overall not too bad. At this point in time, I actually felt okay, but just wanted to go home. I was so antsy and fidgety, but the nurse was able to get this done quickly and get me discharged by 2:00 PM. It was so nice to be home. On Saturday night, Melissa picked up dinner from Casa Mia and we finished watching 24. Then on Sunday night, she grabbed dinner from PF Chang’s and we watched “The Princess Bride”. Through the weekend I felt okay, just extremely hot. I was working to stay hydrated, as it was well over 100 degrees outside, and of course the chemotherapy drugs made my body work overtime. Anyway, I had the AC cranking, and was chugging Gatorade, and made my way through it.

I’m planning to head back to work on Wednesday, though the boys and girls at the office have everything running smoothly, so I don’t necessarily feel like I need to rush back. I have to go back to Kadlec every day this week for my Neupogen shots again, but only through Saturday this time. After that, I have blood work scheduled for next Monday, and an appointment to meet with Dr. Weeks on the 10th. Aside from that, I am going to stay cool, stay hydrated, and go from there. Two down, four to go…