lymphomainsydney

The second cycle is complete as well. I have not posted anything for sometime because there was nothing to post.

The second cycle was overall better than the first one. I still had to go to the hospital in the middle of the cycle and stay there for 3 days because I had some temperature. I have been told to come to the hospital whenever I feel temperature of 38 degrees. That Sunday I checked my temperature, it was 38 and increasing. I went to the emergency and they admitted me because my white cell count was too low. I was discharged the next Wednesday when my white cell counts came back.

The have started to use my port as well. It was actually very comfortable to have a needle and still having both of your hands free.

The other thing is that the doctor has seen my chest X-Ray and she is happy to see the mass reducing in my chest. I had a chest X-ray back in December when I was admitted in my first cycle. I had another X-ray when I was admitted in the second cycle. She compared both of the X-rays and also showed it to me. The mass in the chest is reducing don’t know how malignant it is now.

I have started the third cycle now, a little early because of the Australia day public holiday.

So I am in the second cycle now.

I went to the hospital today for chemotherapy and according to the protocol was injected Doxorubicin, Etoposide and Cyclophosphamide. Also a bag of medicine was handed over to me to take at home including Procarbazine and Prednisolone which I started from today.

Feeling pretty much alright will go in for the second day tomorrow. It is just Etoposide tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Let us hope my stomach stays well this cycle.

So I am out of the first cycle and doing alright.

It got really tough in the middle. I started to feel some side effects from day 9 as my WBC and RBC started to drop. The first problem I felt was pain in my jaws. I could barely move them as it was getting really hard to eat. I tried to kind of ignore it as I was told that neulasta shot can cause some pain for couple of hours. But along with the pain I also got diarrhea and by the day 11 I was at my worst. I was feeling no energy and my heart rate was fast as well. I felt no other option but to go to the hospital and they admitted me. It was Christmas!

The found that my WBC had dropped to almost zero and I was low on lot of other fluids as well because of diarrhea. They put me on IV Potassium immediately to increase that and also started IV antibiotics every 6 hours. The diarrhea started to stabilize the next day. I spent day 11-14 of the first cycle in the hospital and received a lot of fluids and antibiotics. They gave me some more medicines to avoid infections when discharging me from the hospital. I am feeling better now, the fatigue is still there though.

Looking forward to start the next cycle!

I started my chemotherapy on the 14th of December and it consists of 21 day cycles. I am almost through the first cycle because all intra-venous drugs are finished and the neulasta shot on day 9 is done as well. I have finished the Procarbazine but Prednisolone is still continuing. My taste is still good. I will go for a blood test this coming Wednesday.

The only problem I am having so far is a little pain at the end of my jaws when I eat. I don’t know what is causing that.

Thursday 15th of December was the second day of my first chemotherapy cycle. The only medicine scheduled today is Etoposide. It took about 2 hours in total to administer that. Etoposide is an intra-venous drug but before that I also took Procarbazine and Prednisone capsules at home along with some anti-nausea drugs before and after breakfast.

Other than that I am feeling pretty alright. I have been taking anti-nausea drugs which are keeping me fine so far.

Wednesday, 14th of December was the first day of my chemotherapy. As I am taking BEACOPP I have to go 4 days in a 21 days cycle, days 1-3 and then the 8th day. I might have to go other days as well for blood tests.

On the first day they gave me three drugs through a conulla on my hand after giving me ten anti-nausea tablets. These three drugs were Cyclophosphamide, Doxorubisine and Etoposide. Doxorubisine was the shortest, the other two took quite some time to administer. They have also given me six other types of tablets and capsules, three chemo related and three nausea related.

I have not felt anything wrong so far. Let us see how it goes tomorrow.

So I have been away from this blog for sometime this week. There was not much to share.

As I mentioned earlier the doctor wanted to see me on Tuesday. He basically wanted to give me two chemotherapy options.

1. eBEACOPP + baseline BEACOPP

2. RATHL trial which is to start with ABVD and then move to BEACOPP if PET scan is positive after 2 cycles

I have spent most of the last couple of days trying to research about it and I have decided to go to the first option because it has better cure rates. Wish me luck!

The other thing that I did in the last couple of days is a lung test. It is a common practice to do a lung test before starting chemotherapy as a baseline test. It is a fairly simple test. All you have to do is to sit in a cupboard like machine and blow inside a pipe. They tell you to breath normally, breath in and then blow out. Very quick.

Let us see when do they start my chemotherapy.

There has been no activity in a while as I will be going to see my doctor on Tuesday.

The only news I have so far is that my bone marrow is clear and heart is working alright. Looking forward to chemotherapy now.