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Quote of the Day:

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
- Berthold Auerbach
Jul 16

First Week Back on Chemotherapy - In The Bag

Chemotherapy, Brain Tumor No Comments »

I finished up the first week back on chemotherapy last night and overall it went very well.  As I mentioned, I think my body wasn’t ready for it on the first night but by night 2 and 3 I was pretty well in sync with my system again - nothing to eat after 7pm, zofran at 8:30 or 9pm and then chemo treatement starts at 9:30pm as I go to sleep.  So overall I’m really happy with the way it went coming off of a 5-week layoff.  I’m also feeling good energy-wise.  I have some of the typical chemo-related fatigue but I don’t feel like I did before when my counts were so low - it was more or less just walking around feeling like I had a bad cold constantly and wanting to sleep! 

So another week on after taking a one week break and round 8 will be history.  If all goes well and I don’t have to pause my therapy for any other reasons, I will be completely done by November.  I will be taking a break for a week or so at the end of August for a vacation up to Victoria, British Columbia.  No, I’m not such a die-hard that I plan to be popping chemo pills as I gaze out of the hotel window taking in a nice view of the Empress hotel and Victoria harbor!  Speaking of vacations, that will be nice and we also have some friends who have a place at Northstar in Lake Tahoe.  She’s great and has been consistently “reminding me” to get up there so that is something that is in the plans too.  After last year and being tied to the house with a 2-mile rubber-band, it’s nice to think about these things and actually plan them out.

I’ll post again over the weekend - I hope everyone is having a good week and again, thank you for all of your continued support…

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Jul 10

First Night Back On Chemo

My Story, Chemotherapy, Brain Tumor 1 Comment »

After nearly 6 weeks off of chemo because of my low blood counts, the first night back on chemo went ok.  I will have to say though - how quickly I became used to a “normal” life absent chemotherapy!  Gone were the side effects including dry mouth, the more extreme fatigue (much of it was still with me due to low blood counts), some stomach tightening during the night and waking up needing to eat right away (it sort of feels like you have taken vitamins on an empty stomach if they affect you in that way).  I used my same system - no eating after 7pm.  Zofran at 8:30pm., Temodar at 9:15pm or so and then head to bed.  So it will take a little bit of time to acclimate to it again.  I’ll go from here.  I had started on round 8 so this is a redo.  That leaves 5 rounds left including this one.  It certainly will be interesting to see how my labs come back at the end of this round given the recent plummet.

I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night which is atypical compared to how my system was before.  Probably because I’m not in a groove with it just yet.  I was up from 1-3am.  Tonight should be better I’m sure.  One day at a time - but what is most important is that I’m fitting in more treatment.  I need to try to take as much as I can since afterall, I had a 0% resection because of location.  Once I get to a year, I won’t go beyond that because of the risk of leukemia so I need to keep things going.

Down the road we continue…

On another note, we have a large patio cover outside in the backyard and over the past 2 months, 3 different female birds have built nests in the rain gutters on the inside of the cover in different places.  As a result, Aidan has been able to see the whole process from start to finish - the newly hatched birds being fed all the way to the baby birds leaving the nests for the first time and sitting still on the patio, flying 3 and 4 feet and learning to fly.  It’s been a great experience for him to see all of this and ask questions. 

Keegan turns 1 on Sunday.  It’s been a full year since we went through an emergency c-section 2 weeks after my brain surgery - heading to the hospital at midnight.  What a night.  So we are going to have a party which will be really fun.  It’s going to be a quiet party for him which will be nice but we will celebrate his birthday and how far we have come in one short year.

That’s it for now…

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