Chemotherapy - Day 4

08.06.09: Chemotherapy - Day Four

Today I was back in familiar territory -- my recliner in the Bartlett office. When I got to the office I was the only patient there, so I got hooked up and started pretty quickly. I had my Friedman book again today, and read a few stories from it, but mostly spent my morning surfing the web on my phone.

Adam is letting me borrow his old phone, an AT&T Tilt, because I've just about destroyed my Blackberry by dropping it everywhere. I am ready to just buy an iPhone but can't upgrade until December, but this phone is pretty cool. I'm getting used to it, and not misspelling as many words in my text messages anymore.

Today I had my IV stuck in my right hand again, for the third time this week. That vein is getting tired of having needles stuck in it but it's the best one I've got. Tomorrow I'm gonna have to get Nurse Lisa to get creative or something, because this bruise has got to go.

I'm planning to set up an appointment for next week so that I can get a port (or portacath) inserted in in my chest. The process for that is pretty simple; I will have an outpatient surgery to connect a catheter to one of my veins, and the end of it will be on one side of my chest. It will be much more accessible to the doctors, and should be less painful. I imagine I will get the surgery done either Thursday or Friday of next week, so I won't have to miss much work.

As far as side effects go, I have still been doing fine. I have lost about two or three pounds, so nothing noticeable. While my diet has definitely changed for the better, I have just been too tired to be as active as I'd like to be. The temperature outside has been in the high 80's and 90's all week (mostly 90's), and my treatments are making my skin more sensitive to the sun.

A little explanation of the diet change: My Aunt Son Cha sent me a few websites with some information about what is best to eat during chemotherapy. My doctors agreed with the things that she and I discussed, and they are really encouraging good eating throughout this. During this time, my white blood cells are low and I will need all of the nutrition I can get from natural foods. Fried foods are mostly out of the question. I could eat some other things, like grilled meats and things like that, but it really depends on how that food makes me feel. For right now, I am trying to avoid anything that will make me feel worse.

Most of the things I drink (pretty much water and Gatorade) seem to stick around in my throat for a while after I get done drinking. Since I have to drink so much, this is another problem I've been noticing a lot. Rolaids and gum have been helping out a good bit tonight, so I am going to be keeping those in stock. I have also been tired again today, but maybe this weekend I will get to do more than lie around and watch TV. I hope so; I'm going to go crazy if I spend the whole weekend inside.

As I write this, I am working on some things for my job; I will have it done pretty soon so I can send it in tomorrow, if I don't go ahead and do so tonight. For now I am going to get back to watching The Office with Mom, and get ready for my last treatment of the week.