1st Battle complete! :]

We'll, the first battle is complete and I'm in the recovery mode.

Had an appointment with Dr, Atienza yesterday afternoon to discuss how I was making it through the third round of chemo and if there were any issues that we needed to work thru. We talked about all the side effects that I had been experiencing and he basically said that from what I was telling him, he'd expect most of what I was experiencing. He looked at my lab work and said that my white blood count and platens were at the levels he would expect. I brought up the fact that I was concerned about the sores on the corners of my mouth and the fact that I was getting some mouth sores. He looked at them and also said that this is what can be expected. He asked if I was experiencing any diarrhea this time, which I am, and said that as soon as the diarrhea cleared up, that the mouth sores and the cracking on the corners of my mouth would also clear up. He said it's one big gastrointestinal tract that's being affected that starts at the mouth and ends up "you know where". He said that if they looked inside my intestines, they'd probably be all torn up too.
He said that overall, he was pleased on how well I was making it through this and that everything was looking great!

What I meant about the 1st battle being complete is because I've now completed the three initial doses of chemotherapy and the next battle will be radiation.

I asked if it was going to be necessary to keep the PICC line installed and he said that his plan was to have the nurses look at my veins to ensure they were good enough to withstand the rest of the chemo I'll need, and if they were, they'd remove it.
That put a smile on my face. No more having to have Marjie wrap the thing in saran wrap every morning for me to take a shower, no more having the home health care providers come out and change the dressing weekly and no more walking around looking like some kind of science experiment.

We went over to the nurses station after the appointment and within 5 minutes the nurse took the thing out. Unbelievable!! I thought this was going to be some big to do operation at the hospital weeks down the line. Didn't even feel any pain whatsoever. I sat in the recliner while she did her magic...Marjie was watching what was going on and I had my head turned waiting for some serious pain to happen. I had to ask a few minutes later if it was out or not. So this is a good thing!!!!

I think I'm experiencing some kind of acid reflux and that might be the sensation I was talking about earlier when I said I could taste my stomach in my throat. I'm taking Prilosec for it now and Dr. Atienza said if I felt that wasn't working, then he'd prescribe something else for me.

Dr. Atienza's plan is to give me about a 4 week rest period this time before we start the radiation. The radiation doctor is Dr. Sinesi who works in an entirely different office. He actually works in the Cancer treatment center for Chesapeake General Hospital. Dr. Atienza's folks set up an appointment for me to have a head, neck and chest cat scan done on the 22nd of January, and follow up appointments with all concerned are supposed to be being made today. The purpose of the cat scan is to ensure there is no other cancer showing up anywhere and I guess this will give them the green light to start the radiation. I'm not a 100% clear on all this, but once we begin with it all I'll know more and more.

Sometime after the cat scan is completed and results known, I'll be set up with an appointment to have the mask made which will be screwed down to the table holding my head in place so I can't move when they apply the radiation. From what I understand at this point, is that the radiation treatment will be for 6 weeks, Monday thru Friday, 25 minutes a day..weekends off. One of those days, probably Wednesday, I'll go back over to Dr. Atienza's office for a round of chemo. The chemo that I'll get this time is a different type then what I was getting in the past, and a much lower dosage. From what I gather, the side effects like I've been experienced from these other ones will be much less. The big issue with this second battle is going to be the radiation.

The feeding tube was put in place just for this. They say my mouth and throat will get so sore and screwed up that I won't be able to eat or drink and will have to be nourished via the feeding tube. I don't even want to think about this right now!

Goal now is to get better, and try to enjoy the next 4 weeks before I go back into battle. David and I are planning on taking the boat out and doing a little fishing and just basically try to keep my mind off what's coming up.

Right now, I'm not even at 100%...I'd say I'm sitting at 50%. Last night I began to develop a sore throat and here it is 1232 the next day and it hurts to eat, drink, swallow and talk. I'm a little worried about this and if it doesn't get better by tomorrow, I'll call the doctor and see what they have to say.

My muscle soreness/joint soreness has mostly gone away. Cracks in the corners of my mouth are getting better but are still painful and will bleed if I open my mouth too wide. Sores in my mouth are gone, sore throat now present, but the inside of my mouth is still rough and feels funny. Food tastes horrible. I'm having a hard time finding anything that tastes good. Meat and bread type products seem to be the worst. About the only thing I can tolerate right now is yogurt and Top Raman...even though the noodles taste funky. No more nausea or feeling as run down as a few days ago......So I'm healing....think it's just a matter of time now. Seems like every day, I feel better and better, so I should be good to go here shortly and be able to enjoy the rest of the month before all hell breaks loose again.

That's about it for now. My mind is mush! I started out this morning on the blog at 9am. I must have had 6 pages typed up and accidentally deleted the whole damn thing and was unable to recover anything but the title. Sheesh!!!! Took Coho for a walk and started typing again.
This version is is much different and I know I don't have all in this that needs to be here, but there's always tomorrow and it's not like I have much of anything to do anyway.

Thanks again to all for your support!

More to follow..............