Halfway through!

I had my third chemo session last Friday and while it was a bit rough this time around (I felt really nauseous and woozy afterwards), I'm now reached the halfway point of my treatment so that's a little milestone in itself. And guess who I had as the nurse this time? Yep- it was the same nurse as the first session-- the one who messed up on my Ratuxin mix and let it drip on the floor for 1.5 hours. This time around, I made sure that I watched her every move and was constantly checking to see if there was any spillage on the floor! She did a great job this time around and the chemo went smoothly with no hiccups. She might have done too good of a job as she pumped those drugs in me and I was done by 2pm- the fastest I've had my chemo to date- and probably the reason why I was so nauseous. I think I just had too many drugs siphoned into me at too fast of a pace. After the session, I went home and rested and went to bed really early as I was still feeling the effects. The next morning, I woke up still feeling nauseous but after forcing myself to wake up and go on my daily walk, I felt much better after.

Up to now, I've talked to many people who have gone through chemo treatment and they have told me some horrific stories about what they experienced. One person I talked to yesterday had medium grade B-cell non-hodgkins lymphoma and he said he experienced everything- from being extremely fatigued where he was sleeping most of the day, constant nausea, losing his taste buds (he said everything he ate tasted like cardboard so he could only eat really salty or really sweet foods), getting extreme mouth sores and on top of that, getting pneumonia! I really do consider myself fortunate that while I have experienced those symptoms, they have been very mild and very tolerable. But there's a part of me that also worries whether the chemo and fighting the cancer cells is working or not because my side effects have been very mild. I guess I'm about to find out as I got a call earlier today and they have scheduled Friday, November 6 for my PET scan. So, after my fourth chemo treatment on October 23, they'll scan me to see my progress. This will be the first true indication of how well I'm responding to treatment. I hope that since I seem to be doing so well (relatively speaking), that I'll have really good results and the tumor in my abdominal area will have shrunk dramatically. Fingers crossed.

Before I went in for my third treatment, I do a routine blood test so that they can measure my white blood cell count, red blood cell count, platelets count, and hemoglobin levels. My WBC count was extremely low this time around so most likely I'll have to get shots of neupogen this week to help boost my WBC count levels. Since it's so low, I'm even more careful of being around large crowds and close to sick people. As I mentioned, one sneeze could do it for me and I'll end up getting pneumonia or the flu like the guy I talked to yesterday. What sucks is that I can't even get a flu shot to prevent the flu because my body can't handle it at the moment!


However, despite all that, I still managed to hang out with my friends over the weekend and went to the Giants game this past Saturday and the 49ers game on Sunday, although I did wear a mask
to and from the stadium. It was good hanging out with my friends; the weather was great at AT&T Park and the Giants won. The Niners game really sucked but we had a great time anyways as we got hooked up with VIP tickets courtesy of my friends Sandy and Harry and we stayed in the VIP lounge most of the time where we saw Barry Bonds and Ronnie Lott.

So, how do I feel now that I'm halfway thorough my treatment? I'm relieved as I've made it this far and I have a renewed sense of optimism that there is an end in sight-- a goal that I'm trying to attain is reachable and I'm halfway there now.