Week 5 done!

Hi everyone,

We just got through the 5^th week without too many problems. There are some minor annoyances going on now like the fact that the inside of my mouth hurts like hell. Chemo does kill your taste buds and other cells in the mouth area so this is not unexpected but it is a pain in the butt. I cannot enjoy anything that has salt or pepper on it because it burns the heck out of my mouth. The only foods that don't “hurt” to eat are cold, non spicy foods like…ice cream!!  Anything that is hot (cooked) burns my mouth and anything that is spiced burns my mouth so ice cream is the perfect solution. Chocolate works too but everyone knows the benefits of chocolate over cancer right?? ;)

 

Week 6 is coming up this Friday and that is also the half way point!! They will be adding another 50% to the dosage from last week so this is going to be the highest dosage I get from here on out. If it is too much we might drop back on it but we will see after next week.

 

In the meantime Carol and I are decorated the house yesterday and today so I will try and get some pictures soon

I hope everyone is having a great Turkey Weekend!

Peace and Love

John and Carol

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Hi Everyone

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

 

Well I had my 5^th  session this past Friday and they bumped up the dosage as promised.  I felt about the same on Sat and Sun that I usually do. Mon and Tues were worse than normal but not impossible. I was definitely more nauseous and came pretty close to throwing up a few times but I got through it. Today (Wed) is a pretty good day and I expect to be back to normal by tomorrow for Turkey Day!  Carol and I are headed over to our friends house for the big turkey cook-off. It will be our traditional turkey against their fried turkey. May the best bird win!

 

This being the season for giving thanks, I can definitely say that I have much to be thankful for. I may be having some bad times with this disease but I am also lucky enough to have so many people thinking and praying for us! I want to thank all of you for your prayers and positive thoughts because it really does mean a lot to me. I am so lucky to have the kind of support that I have, starting with Carol,  and then to all of our family and friends.  I feel very lucky, very grateful and I thank everyone for all that you have done!

I hope you all have a great turkey day and our thoughts and prayers are with  you all.

Peace and love,

John and Carol                          

 

Week 5 preview

Hi everyone

(This is a picture we took last week at the beach. As you can see, I am not losing any weight from the chemo yet!!)

I haven’t had much to talk about lately because Week 4 went so well. Week 5 is tomorrow and they are bumping up the dosage by 50% so I will be expecting a little longer recovery time and a little more nausea and sickness. They are going to do another 50% on Week 6 which will effectively double what I am getting right now. After that we remain at that dosage. So the next 2 sessions are going to be interesting. Stay tuned for updates on that.

Otherwise things are going very well and I am looking forward to the half way point in 2 weeks!!

So far so good I guess.

Take care and I will be updating everyone early next week

Peace and love!

John

 

Time to start ginding it out

Hi

Just want to let everyone know that this week has been a breeze!! I am not all that sick and we are now into Wed night so that is usually my “get well” day. I wish I could stay at this dose for the rest of the treatment but I can't. I think I talked about the fact that we need to bump up the dosage to be at an effective level. I have gotten a bit of a break by switching doctors; I got an extra week at the lower dosage. Shhhhhh!!! Don’t say anything ok?? J

I am trying not to think about the increased dose and all that and instead I am trying to focus on just getting through this and coming out the other side. I know I can grind it out for 8 more sessions. I think this puts me around Feb 26^th or maybe a little bit after if I  have to skip a week somewhere. This happened last time, I had to skip a week because my white blood cells were pretty low and they just pushed it back a week.

I’m kind of bummed that this has to be going on over the holidays but Carol and I are planning a “Post Chemo Vacation” to make up for it. We haven’t made any decisions but I am thinking that going somewhere nice and warm in March or April wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Speaking of the holidays; my brother and his son are coming down for a few days so I am very much looking forward to that but I think our Holiday plans are pretty limited by the chemo so I doubt we will be going anywhere. That’s ok though, we will make up for it after.

 

There isn’t a whole heck of lot else to talk about except I do have once big complaint. How in the heck could you people vote for Carol or the dolphin over ME in that picture????!!?!? I looked fantastic  (way better than the dolphin) so I think there is some funny business going on with the voting situation. Get real people!!! LOL

Take care everyone…of yourselves and of each other…

Peace and love to all

John

What a difference!

Hi all..

I went to my first chemo session at the new place and what a difference! The nurses actually make you feel special and they care about you. They serve you lunch if you are there during lunch time and today I got to hang out with Buddy Love for 5 minutes. Buddy Love is a rescue golden lab that has been given some training so he can come out to places like the chemo center and let people pet him and tell him what a good boy he is. Buddy Love and I had a good first meeting and I am looking forward to seeing him again. He is probably around 8-9 years old and very patient. One of the nurses started scratching his ears and he just laid down on the floor and put his head right in her lap.

Anyway that is the kind of special touch that makes this process go by a little better and it is like night and day compared to the Jiffy Lube attitude I was going to.

 

The anti nausea medicine they have me seems to be working well. I don't feel as sick today as I did last Friday but we will see what happens.

For what its worth I am in a much better frame of mind than I have been and I think this move was the right thing to do.

It was all my idea, not Carol’s (LOL)

Peace..and Love…

John and Carol

I have a new Doctor

Hi everyone,

Carol and I had an appointment with a new doctor  yesterday and it went great! This is the place for me. They are very much like the office I used for my first round of chemo and everyone is extremely kind, efficient and concerned with my well being. They even have pet therapy where volunteers bring dogs around for you to play with during chemo! My first office did this and it was very cool. They also have massage therapy because many chemo patients have neuropathy from the drugs. A person will come around and massage your feet or hands during chemo. I can't wait but I bet they aren’t as good as Carol!!

 

My doctor (Peter Ungaro) is an older man and a little bit goofy but very good. He understood what I wanted and listened to me. He is letting me keep Friday as my appointment day which works very well for me and work. He did say that the level of drugs that I was on probably needed to be increased. The reason for this is that my first doctor started at the maximum and when I got so sick he cut it in half. The better way to go is to start low and gradually increase the dosage. So we are going with the low dose this week but we will be increasing the dosage after that. Basically we need to go from 250Mg to 500MG in order to get the most out of it. When he heard how sick I got at the 500MG level he prescribed 2 different anti-nausea drugs for me. So I have those ready to go and I will take them as we increase the dosage.

 

So tomorrow is my 4^th session and after that I will have 8 more to do so after tomorrow I am 1/3 done!! I know I have some rough days ahead of me once they increase the dosage but I really think having the right doctor and the right staff will help. Of course the additional medications will help too.

 

Other than that I am feeling pretty good. I have something weird going on in my mouth where foods with any spices in them burn really bad but that is probably due to the chemo killing off taste buds. Chemo kills any fast growing cells in your body and this regimen is geared to your digestive tract since the cancer  originated in the colon. Some fast growing cells are actually GOOD for you like taste buds, red blood cells and white blood cells. They don't have a good way to differentiate good fast growers from bad fast growers so that is the price you pay: Anemia from low red blood cells, risk of infection from low white cells, and crazy mouth problems from dead taste bud cells. Plus the nausea and constipation and all of that of course.

 

Anyway that is the update from this end. Carol is still the best nurse I could hope to have and she is taking very good care of me!

Peace and love to you all..

John