Third Chemo

Originally sent in an email on March 4, 2014

Hello from the endless winter of the Northeast

I am heading in for my fourth chemo session tomorrow and if it goes as well as the third session, I'll be a very happy man.

On the day of the third chemo session, February 19, we had our old babysitter from Vermont, Abby, in place to take care of Isla (she now lives south of Boston in New Bedford).  Meanwhile, my friend Scott was driving up from Jersey, arriving in the evening, and would stay six days to support us in case any issues arose. Don't know if we were more excited to see Scott himself, or to have some of his cooking while he was here.  Thanks to Pam and Jack for making him available, and Scott for being...Scott.

No major issues at the clinic, except that the Canada game against Latvia, being played while I was getting infused, was not available on the hospital TV, much to my chagrin.  I was able to see the last few minutes streamed on my computer after setting up a portable wi-fi. So Karla and I came home with me hooked up to the portable infuser and we had a great dinner with Scott and Abby (who stayed around a bit longer because Isla was initially not too sure about that strange man with a goatee).

Day 2 and Day 3 went relatively smoothly.  I did get some quite intense lower jaw pain that I was able to manage for the most part with tylenol and ibuprofen.  Unfortunately, the pain struck just as the Canadian women were mounting that incredible comeback against the US in the gold medal game.  I actually had to bury my head as I waited for the ibuprofen to take effect, but the true friend that Scott is, he gave me the play-by-play and his voice held such excitement (sarcasm intended) when Canada scored the winner.

We also had a visit from a second infusion company.  As I had issues with dehydration in previous sessions, they provided us with an infuser that Karla and I could hook up ourselves, as well as three bags of saline.  So Karla was able to hook up and unhook the saline, as well as remove the original infuser when my 48 hours of chemo were up.  We'd use the saline three times on Day 3, 5 and 7. This saves us having to drive into the clinic, and apart from some heperin spraying on the ceiling, Karla handled the infusers very well.

So really, other than being a bit run down on Day 9, everything has gone pretty smoothly.  I maybe overdid it a few days in terms of physical activity and or work, and I need to force myself to rest before I get too tired, and not after.  The push over the past two weeks has been to gain weight back and I have been moderately successful, getting over 160 pounds for the first time since the start of the second chemo session. Lots of protein.

My parents are here and will provide support over the next week.  Not quite ready to say we are in a "steady" state yet, but things have been encouraging.  A week on Friday, I get my first CT scan since the chemo started - that will tell us if the chemo has had an effect. 

In other news, Karla is doing very well with the baby.  Just over two months to go and the baby boy is very active. We have also identified our au pair, and she will be moving into our house on April 10, giving her some time to adjust, as well as Isla getting used to her. She is from Panama, so we are hoping Isla will learn a second language while she is here.

Not looking forward to tomorrow but this email comes from a good place.

Andrew