Sunday, November 22, 2009

Only Four More Chemo Treatments To Go


I was planning to convert my diary to blog and work up to real time back dating the entry's, For now I'm going to abandon that idea and jump to real time. I will try to fill in when I can.
I've been trying hard to make cancer treatment look easy and I've been impressive with my success. Tuesday I started my fourth Infusion of Fluorouracil and Oxaliplatin two potent Chemotherapy drugs well known for kicking ass. The side effects of many chemo drugs and particularly Oxaliplatin are cumulative, that is they start from how bad they got the last cycle and get worse from there. Tuesday I left the hospital with a Chemo pump and the home infusion nurse was scheduled to come to my house to do my "take down" Thursday at 5:15pm. That means shutting off the chemo and placing everything in the hazmat container, flushing the chemo port with saline, injecting Heparin into the port to prevent clots and then removing the needle. when I called to verify the schedule they said they thought I was going to do it myself this time. I've been training but they have resisted to this point so I was a little surprised. I managed it with no problem. It does take a while to get the needle stick to stop bleeding since it was just filled with stuff to prevent clotting, it took about 10 Min's to quit.
Chemo fatigue is starting to take its toll on me, this week I had a client tell me to go home and go to bed. I must have looked bad. Fatigue is doing a number on me. I have noticed problems with fine motor skills too, I have the shakes. Saturday I was tired and laid down around 5pm, when I woke up it was after 10am Sunday. I didn't feel exactly rested but I did feel better. I tried to do some work today but my energy drains fast. The good news is I'm not spending all my time in the bathroom and bouts of nausea are weak and rarely stay long. I haven't mentioned that I spent Thursday night sleeping on the bathroom floor hoping I could make it 2 feet in time, It almost worked, by morning I had taken 5 doses of anti-Diarrhea medicine and was well on the way toward normal. Good thing too, cause the maximum is 6 doses in 24 hours. I was up to over an hour between sit downs by the morning and was able to go get some work done.

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Monday, November 16, 2009

5.) Rehab isn't always a bad thing

The Radiation techs have figured out how to drive me to distraction. I can see them saying to themselves "I bet this guy is really ticklish, lets draw all over his butt while telling him to hold still." I was flipping around like a fish out of water and thinking I'll probably start getting radiation to my knees since I just about flipped off the table as they were drawing the aiming marks. I would not give them better then a C- for the art work. The photo I had of the "art work" was deamed a bit to much by Blogger so I gracefully removed it. I'll look for something better to add later.

Maybe some day I'll change the subject but I'm not ready to give in yet. I found an interesting NIH study being done for prostate cancer that could help me. In any event it will be a fun distraction from the other indignities medicine has put me through. The basic concept is penile rehabilitation through inhanced nocternal erections prior to and after surgery. The only obsticle is cost since it involves taking tier 3 drugs which are not covered by insurance. The actual study can be found seen at http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00544076 Naturally I picked the Arm III: Patients receive oral sildenafil citrate once daily for up to 9 months in the absence of unacceptable toxicity. Patients also receive a set of 3 doses of oral sildenafil citrate at least 48 hours apart monthly for up to 18 months.

After reading: http://www.webmd.com/erectile-dysfunction/cialis-viagra-levitra-treat-ed particulaly the part where is says “What Are the Differences Between Cialis, Levitra, and Viagra? Cialis, Levitra, and Viagra work by a similar mechanism to cause erections. There are subtle differences in how long the drug works and how quickly it works. Levitra works a little longer than Viagra. They both take effect in about 30 minutes. With Levitra, the effects last for about 5 hours. With Viagra, the effects last approximately 4 hours. Cialis works a bit faster (within about 15 minutes), and the effects last much longer -- up to 36 hours in some cases.” Naturally I chose Cialis since it works longer then the other two.
Part of what peaked my interest was reading “Unfortunately, radiation tends to disrupt the blood flow and hence the outcomes for sexual function decrease over time. Almost half of men treated
will have problems. Sadly, treatment options are not that many as this is an area wanting of adequate research . Since it is a problem with blood flow, most patients improve with Viagra. There is some evidence that intra-urethral (it is suppository for the penis, the drug is inserted inside the hole where urine and ejaculate passes) alprostadil also helps, however this may be too invasive to be acceptable to you.”
My plan is to take between 5 and 10 Mg of Cialis daily for a month prior to surgery. I have the perscription and am ready to start. The only issue is that my blood pressure has been elevated from the treatment giving me a reason delay a few days before starting.