No 5th Round, get ready to celebrate

Alright, I was pretty convinced that I'd be doing a 5th round of chemo and today told my Dr., "Yes, I'd like to go ahead and do it."  Surprisingly, she was pretty resistant and said that she had no medical evidence that a 5th round would be beneficial.  She also indicated that what led her to suggest a 5th round was how well I've been doing with my chemo and often they will use a 5th and 6th round when the tumor has been shown to be resistant or large.  Neither has been the case for me, so it looks like this last round will be it for my chemo and it will be onto radiation.

I'm going to start planning the "Chemo shmeemo" party!!!!

And, did I mention?!?!?

My favorite part! Hair is falling out freely! You know what that means..... no more shaving for a while!!!! YES! Not that I was doing it anyhow, I figured I'd be losing the hair agin soon so didn't bother with it much at all, lazy me, I know!

More blood work reveals that I still have blood!

Yep, they keep drawing my blood, but they don't seem to be able to get it all; I keep going back, silly me!

Finally got a decent count today, platelets are a bit low, but not scary low so I just have to monitor how I'm feeling, which overall isn't terribly bad. White blood count is up, so I don't need to worry so much about what I eat.

I've pretty much decided to go ahead with a 5th round, I'll have a couple small questions for my chemo doc, but otherwise I'm very convinced! I mean, if that woman I first met in the hospital can take 6 rounds, then I'm sure I can do 5, I mean really! Secretly, it's just so I can see the nurses more, just kidding, or am I?!

Blood work 2/23

Another check of my blood count today shows I'm still low in WBC and actually my platelets dropped also... For now I just have to keep doing what I've been doing and laying low. That has been boring, but I've been making a lot of headway on a few of my projects that have been on the back burner...

BTW, this means I get another blood count Wednesday!

Blood work 2/20

Par for the course, my blood work came back with low WBC. This means I need to be careful of undercooked foods and mindful of any signs of infection/illness. Being kind to my right arm, which is usually the one they draw from, I insisted on the left... It's worth the extra little bit of pain to spare my right, believe me!

That said, I'm feeling pretty good, did some grocery shopping while in town, and that about sums it up.

I'll remark that my last post seemed pretty "blah." That is purely a result of how I was feeling physically; emotionally I'm still high spirited and this isn't really getting to me other than being frustrated this is such a time consuming process!

None of this counts as a vacation, none of it!!!!

I've neglected this, totally irresponcible on my part.

I made it through this round in the usual fashion, and my father picked me up at got me back home with no problems.

My stay in the hospital didn't go as well as I planned; I got sick of the food sooner, I got more tired sooner, and that all frustrated me, sooner. I did have some great nurses that helped to keep my spirits up(keep it clean people), and a young woman I met at the SCCA even came to visit me! I must be doing something right!

Since I've been back I've felt nowhere near myself and have been trying to. My stomach felt unsettled until today and now I've got an appetite again. There is a chemical odor you get from the chemo and that started to get to me so I used a home remedy for that(epsom salt bath). Otherwise, I am holding up pretty dang well and I get to have bloodwork tomorrow! I've just been trying to keep busy here at home and I'm looking forward to when I get all this behind me.

My plans for this round!

Well the last couple rounds haven't been all that I wanted them to be, but I'm not that concerned.

My first round was really just getting to know the ropes, I did that.
My second round actually ran me down quite a bit, I didn't like that.
This round I intend on working out to some degree everyday to keep my body in the lead here!

Otherwise, I'm still keeping on! Impossibly hard to play sports with an I-V tree attached, dang it!

Round III begins with the sun; in Seattle, in February!!?!?!?!??!!??!

Yesterday started early with Mark coming to the house and picking me up in the snow and fog. The bit of snow at the house had me feeling guilty about the whole trip up, but Mark was more than reassuring, and when we got outside of Ellensburg it became clear I didn't have anything to worry about! I do owe Mark a car wash though. Before heading off we stopped in at my Father's and said a quick goodbye and then were off.

It was pretty foggy through most of the valley, but there were some occasional clearings and we noticed off in the distance this strange thing called sun light. That really lifted our sprits and we kept seeing more and more sun until we crossed the pass, with no problems by the way, and were treated a green and sunny west side. Who knew!?!?!

My first appointment was a blood draw at 10, and I was late for that, but a blood draw doesn't require the promptness that my other appointments do so I wasn't at all worried about that. I checked into the SCCA for that and they accessed my port and took some blood to get started. It was still sunny out in Seattle, so I tried to encourage Mark that he didn't have to hang out at SCCA especially with REI so close... I went to my next appoinment, a chest CT scan, and that took longer then I would have liked. I had forgotten that you have to be injected with a marker and they hold you for observation after that, and that took another half hour. Mark and I were planning on heading out to Red Mill, so this was really cutting into that. Again, Mark was totally cool about the situation and agreed to go after all my appointments.

I got to my last appointment and that took at bit longer than I anticipated and I was really getting hungry, so I knew I'd be ready to eat a big meal at Red Mill!!!! We drove straight over to Red Mill, in the sun, and enjoyed those super burgers and onion rings! Then, it was back to my old digs at UWMC. I got a new nurse and was (umbilically) with beaker, it was great! Currently the juices ARE flowing!

All in all it was a really nice day, but chilly! Mark thanks for everything, I owe you pal!

Ready to go again

Round three took some effort ot get pinned down, but I start on the 11th.

Good friend Mark has graciously volunteered to drive me up there, so that's set. Just getting things in order here before I have to go back up there.

I'm still anxious to get this all done. I'm actually getting pretty stir crazy and I've even been doing a lot of activities....?

Just to clear things up

I just read that last post and it reads a bit ambiguously, so I thought I'd try to clear that up now.

Yes, it all was very good and clean from the surgery!!! And, that is what I expected.

I was getting pretty used to the idea of not having to do anything further as far as chemo and radiation, I'm really anxious to get back to normal, but they still want me to proceed with the original plan of additional rounds of chemo and the radiation. I agree, and chemo will start again the week of Feb 9.

In my discussion with my chemotherapist, Dr. Rodler, we talked about the possibility of a 5th round just to be sure. This will be an option, but Dr. Rodler also needs to be sure I continue to do well with the chemo in the first place. I am more concerned with my cardiovascular system and made mention of that. Basically that concern is delt with by just switching chemo drugs if my cardiovascular system were in danger.

I remain well, and am anxious to get this all behind me! All my best,
Adam.