Chemo 4

I saw my oncologist this morning during my chemo session and we discussed the problems I had been experiencing with extreme fatigue and I was starting to show signs of depression. My platelet counts were low and I began experiencing spontaneous nose bleeds over the past week. Cold sensitivity from the Oxialplatin lingered and the recovery window from chemo, days when I felt halfway descent was down to about 3 days between treatments. This was especially, disturbing since Oxilaplatin can cause neuropathy in the feet and hands and being diabetic already increases my risk of neuropathy. He changed my treatment schedule from that point on from every 2 weeks to every 3 weeks. Allowing me a little more recovery time. He also wanted to get some genetic testing done to rule out problems with DNA mismatch repair.

Downward spiral

Chemo has really been kicking me this week. I was able stick it out on Monday and work the whole day, but I had to go home Tuesday at noon. I had to stay home yesterday morning, except for a oncology visit and I wasn’t able to make it to work until 10:30 AM this morning. When I saw the PA at the oncologist’s office yesterday my blood pressure was still low, e.g. 102/60. She said low BP is typical with chemo and recommended that I cut my BP med dose in half, which I did last night. Three things are dragging me down, chemo, low BP and high blood glucose from steroids, which are given prior to chemo infusion. If it’s this bad now I can’t image what it’s going to be like 5 months from now.

Chemo 3

Cold sensitivity kicked in right away and I’ll be dealing with that for the next week. Felt pretty good yesterday, but wasn’t able to sleep well last night because of the steroids. Today has been going well so far, but I’m sure fatigue will begin to set in tomorrow after they remove the portable pump. I’ll probably be feeling drained this weekend, but such is life when you’re on treatment. I’m still drinking a lot of water and trying to walk as much as I can, which has been helping.

Dr. Oz’s cancer scare

Here’s a link to a Time magazine article regarding Dr. Oz and his personal colonoscopy experience. They say that doctors make the worst patients and Dr. Oz was no exception. He didn’t perform the colon prep adequately making it more difficult to perform the examination. However, a polyp was found during the procedure. He was supposed to have a follow up colonoscopy performed a few months later, but kept procrastinating even though as a doctor he knew better. It’s a interesting read.