Wednesday, February 3, 2010

I'm sorry for the delay on the blog, because I have been so shaky that I've been unable to type. Since my last post there have been some very interesting developments. The good thing was that the CT scan was negative. The bad news is that the "gemsar" that they gave me not only kicked my ass but it kicked S*** out of my red and white blood cells. I thought that it was just a matter of being able to take the side effects in stride but I of course was wrong. Dr Adhami was not in on Tues. so we met with his partner and she informed us that we had two choices: take a shot of decadron and wait a week to have chemo, or take chemo then with the knowledge that it could lower my blood count even worse. After two calls to Adhami and one to God we decided to go for the chemo.

After I made that decision I find out that there are like three other medicines that they have to put in the chemo to try to offset all the F8888888 side effects of all the S8888 they're going to put in me. The best news is that the one medicine that I didn't want because it effects the bone marrow and makes every bone in your body hurt, the last time I took it I was down for 48 hours I have to have and I had it today.

After the treatment yesterday I started to shake uncontrollably. You feel as though you're cold and that you've got to put blankets on to warm your body. After about an hour of shaking I decided I couldn't take the shaking any more and took two Vicodin. After about 45 minutes the Vicodin started to work and within another hour and a half I finally stopped shaking. Now the downside to the 4 dog night was that it caused my temp to go to 102.2. I was told to call the emergency # if my temp goes over 101. When we talked to Dr. Adhami he said to take a couple Tylenol and call him in the morning! What the H else is a doctor going to tell you to do. So I took the tylenol and Sharon got me an ice pack and within an hour or so my temp was back down to 99. I have finally decided that taking vicodin before any of this s888 starts to take effect is the best course of action. In talking to my brother today he said that's what he did with his shoulder operation. While I was talking to him I started to shake and I told him I still had an hour before I should take another vicodin and he said are you nuts...if you're starting to hurt take a f88888888 pill. I'm going to take his advice.

As I was ending my conversation with Larry, Sharon came in and I asked her if we could go do the blog. So that is about as current as I can bring you. I'm dictating, Sharon is typing for me until I get my coordination back.

Thank you for all of you that have shown concern a to why I was not writing my blog. I do enjoy writing the blog and please know that when I don't it's because there's nothing to tell you or I'm incapable of typing.

So far the side effects of the neulasta I got today have been much gentler than the last time. I can't really stand for very long and the most comfortable position is on the couch. Of course my family thinks that's my favorite position if I'm hurting or not but today I have a great excuse to be there.
Love to all,
Tom