A Little Whoop De Do

November 8th – A couple recent photos just to catch you up on how I'm looking.

I finished up my second round of chemo Friday. You’ll recall, day 1, was on Wednesday, Nov 5th with carboplatin and etoposide by IV at Virginia Mason. That was a little trying because they ended up having to stick my right & left arms four times to get the IV properly started. The infusion then started causing some irritation and burning in the vein, so they moved it to my right arm (fifth poke).

Days 2 and 3 at home with pills for just etoposide went well, except for minor nausea and heartburn. Prescription pills, called antiemetics, helped with the nausea. Apparently, nausea associated with chemo is common (remember, fast growing cells of stomach lining) and needs to be controlled as quickly as possible with the antiemetics or it can become difficult & result in dehydration.

Today is Saturday & I feel good this morning. No nausea and energy level is good. If it were not so wet out, I’d get something done.

Pretty sure I described the disappearing hair on my head. In order to prepare myself, family and co-workers, I went ahead and shaved it off … pretty breezy!

My third chemo session has been scheduled for December 4th, 5th & 6th. The follow up CT Scan has not yet been scheduled. The purpose of this scan is to see where I’m at after three rounds of chemo & make decisions about next steps.

Prior to the next chemo, I’m going to try to get a port implanted in my chest to make the IV infusions easier & much less stressful on the veins in my arms. The ‘port’ is a small tube (catheter) that is placed in a large vein near the heart. The business end, or port, lies just under the skin on one side of the chest. It is supposed to be clean & comfortable, with nothing exposed outside to get caught on clothing, etc.. To use it for infusions or blood draws, a nurse just pokes a needle into the head of the port & has direct access to the vein since the catheter is already in place.