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