Two Down, Two to Go


I finished the second round of chemotherapy sessions on Friday, and once again, nothing bad happened that I could recognize.  The only side effect that I noticed was constipation, but I got moving again last night, so that was just a minor annoyance.

There was one side effect of my first round of treatments that had no symptom that I was aware of:  a blood test before the second round showed that I had a really low white blood cell count giving me a high risk of infection.  This time, after the last drip on Friday, the nurse taped a small box on my stomach that, I gather, gave me a trickle of some drug that would stimulate my bone marrow.  I was told to leave it on for a bit over 24 hours and then just take it off and throw it away in the regular trash.  Again, just a minor annoyance at worst; and most of the time, I didn’t even need to pay any attention to it.

They found a really good vein on Thursday and so were able to leave the IV in overnight; but I don’t think I’ll ask them to do that again:  given the really small needles they use these days, and the high skill level of all the nurses that I’ve had, getting stuck one more time is better than not being able to take a proper shower later and worrying about messing up the IV while I was sleeping.

I’ve been tremendously fortunate so far.  I’m just n=1, of course, so my experience isn’t significant; but so far this hasn’t been bad at all.  Indeed, once I found out that I could bring my computer and WiFi hotspot with me, there wasn’t even any boredom. 🙂

My next round of treatments will be Wednesday through Friday starting on the 25th; and the doctor said that it would be OK for me to get my next COVID booster about a week before that.

On the first of November, I’ll begin my trip to Kailua-Kona, Hawaiʻi for some meetings; and I’ll get my final round of treatments probably a couple of weeks after I get home on the 15th.

Comments

  1. Jazzlet says

    Glad that you are not having nasty side effects so far, and I hope it stays that way.

  2. says

    Fingers crossed for your good experience in a bad situation to continue. And also for a good end result of course.

  3. Katydid says

    So glad to hear the experience is much better than you had thought. Sincere wishes it remains so! Also happy to hear your upcoming trip is still in the cards for you.

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