Here’s a quick update to let everyone know how I’m doing on my first full day after receiving my first chemo treatment. I’ll try to go into as much detail as possible too, in case people are reading this in future about to go through chemo on their own.

But here’s the cliff notes: I’m doing pretty good!

 

Sleepless Night

I had a pretty sleepless night last night. I think I got about two hours of good sleep. I didn’t fall asleep until about 1am, and I was wide awake at 3am and up for the duration. I may have caught as much as 1 hr between 7:30 and 8:30 between Luis’s alarms going off.

I don’t know whether the reason I couldn’t sleep was due to the steroids from the pre-chemo drugs. They did say, and I have read online, that it can be difficult to sleep the night of chemo due to the steroids.  However, I have not been sleeping well for weeks – so maybe this was just another sleepless night. Or maybe it was a combination of the two.

 

Mild Symptoms

Acid Reflux – Far and away the most annoying symptom of the day has been my acid reflux. I have had infrequent acid reflux for years, but it can be pretty severe when triggered. By infrequent, I mean that I maybe have an episode once a month, or perhaps could go 5-6 months without a single episode. But the chemo seems to have triggered it, and it’s been pretty severe all day. So severe that I’ve been very careful about what I eat.

Nausea – So, I have some very mild nausea going on. Not so much that I think I am going to vomit, but I definitely feel just a bit queasy. That coupled with the acid reflux has had me very careful throughout the day. I did take my first prescribed anti-nausea medication today (Domperidone) and I have actually felt much less nauseous since taking this. I haven’t yet taken the stronger prescriptions which are optional to take, because I haven’t felt nauseous enough that I need to take them. Hopefully this will continue.

Tummy Troubles – I did begin having some trouble issues towards midnight. Again, this could be entirely chalked up to my dubious decision to eat Qdoba immediately following chemo. I took a couple Gas-X (we call them our ‘Little Green Pills‘ in public) and that took care of the issue. I’ve had extremely mild tummy issues throughout the day, but nothing so severe that I felt like I needed to take anymore little green pills. And at present, I’m not having any issues.

Tingling Tongue – When I woke up at 3am, my tongue felt tingly. Not like a hurting sensation, more like it was asleep. This has persisted throughout the day but isn’t bothering me as much now as it was this morning. I’m a bit worried this might be forecasting additional mouth issues, although I am hoping that’s not the case. Brush brush brush after every meal!

Tired – I am tired today, but I’m not sure how to appropriately attribute the blame. I only slept two hours last night, so am I tired because I didn’t sleep or fatigued by the chemo?  I’m not sure – and frankly, for having slept only a couple hours, I feel like I am less tired than I should be – which makes me think maybe the steroids are still artificially propping me up. Additionally, as mentioned before, I don’t know whether I couldn’t sleep last night due to steroids or just my always high anxiety.

Hair Loss – NONE!  Suck it, cancer. Still have my beautiful thick shaggy mop of hair.

When you list it all out, it seems like I’m going through a lot… but honestly, it doesn’t feel that way. All in all, I’m pretty happy with the way today has gone in terms of symptoms.

The mildness of the reaction has allowed me to work a normal full day at the (home) office and get stuff accomplished. I’m very optimistic about making at least one and hopefully two of this month’s work trips – the first being next week’s 48-hour excursion to Daytona Beach to attend the country’s most prestigious greyhound race and administer the most lucrative greyhound handicapping contest ever.

 

 

Food & Liquid

Appetite & Food – My appetite hasn’t been too affected, but with the acid reflux kicking in, I’ve been pretty careful about solid foods and only am eating in small quantities.

• I only had some orange juice and apple juice for breakfast (fresh from the juicer).
• I had one cup of coffee to get me started this morning (I usually have about 8 cups).
• For lunch I had a few fork fulls of instant Mac & Cheese.
• Mid afternoon, I had a small bowl of applesauce.
• Just now, I am snacking on a small bowl of cottage cheese.

Liquid Intake – I’ve been guzzling water all day long with my daily goal of water intake being 1 gallon. I went to Kroger today and bought (amongst other items) a gallon of drinking water that I’ll refill from the tap, as a way of measuring this goal daily.  It’s not an uncommon goal for me to have – I frequently task myself to drink a gallon of water a day, and sometimes succeed at this for 6-months at a time or longer.  This doesn’t include the other liquids I drink daily, such as coffee or juices. I’ve also purchased coconut water (disgusting but healthy), a couple different types of V8, and some Gatorade (this has helped me with nausea in the past, sometimes but not always related to alcohol, from which I am temporarily banned/restricted).  I also bought a ton of things that can be juiced, including oranges, apples (green this time for something different), lemons, cucumbers, parsley and a big fresh pineapple.

 

The Lump

We’re going to be monitoring the size and scope of “The Lump” that first sent me seeking medical attention six months ago.  I’ve read other people’s blogs who went to the hospital with similar neck lumps, that it decreased in size very quickly. It will be really nice if that happens to me, because I would love to see some early signs of things getting better.

We’ve taken a photo here. It’s really tough to get a photo that truly reflects how BIG this lump is. I mean, it’s really big; it takes up the lower half of my neck and is the size of a large grape at least. It’s just difficult to photograph.  Also shown in this photo is my surgery scar from my biopsy last month. Please disregard that annoying cyst near my collar bone; have had that for years and that’s not cancer, it’s just ugly.

 

 

Thank you!

Thanks again for everyone for constantly checking in on me. It’s never annoying like a lot of you seem to think it is – it’s always so positive and uplifting to hear from everyone! That’s what keeps me strong and positive.  I love each of you following along more than I can express.

 

Much Love,

Merv