Round 6 - The beginning of the end.

The beginning of the end of the chemo treatment not me, in case you got the wrong picture. I intend to go on for a long time yet and whatever disease is inside me had better get used to that.  Fighting words I know but I am feeling much better this week so I can afford to be bold.  When I feel like crap next week I may not be so fiesty. In 4 weeks time  I'll have the ct scan and I'll be back to fighting words.

Not much else to say this week other than I am exercising and feeling good right now.  Next report in news at 11.

Round 6 - Postponed

I have 2 pieces of good news from Niall today.

1. We are postponing round 6 to next week due to my hands and mouth not having recovered sufficiently from the Cisplatin to proceed. This is because without sufficient recovery between rounds permanent nerve damage can be done. So it is treated fairly seriously. No surprise there.

2. The very good news is that because I have managed somehow to stay on a relatively high dose of the chemo drugs, in particular Cisplatin, round 6 is to be my last of the chemo treatments.  WOOHOO!!. I will remain on the Herceptin for as long as it continues to due the job. It has almost no (they won't ever say "no side effects" these days) side effects so no problems.

I will have a CT scan will round 6 is completed and hopefully it will show everything is under control.

Round 5 last 2 weeks

Wow it's been 2 weeks since my last blog. This has been probably the most inconsistent and confusing round yet.  Every time I thought a symptom had finished our at least was easing based on other rounds it would come back.  It's been stop/start, come, go, come back again. My hands are the worst and they really haven't yet gotten much better, although they haven't peeled, so not as bad as round 2.

Close behind is my mouth and appetite.  By that I mean my mouth is dehydrated and my tongue is actually cracking down the middle.  Everything still tastes like crap which always happens but it's usually gone by now.  It's really hard to get excited about eating anything when it tastes awful and hurts to eat. 

I doubt very much that I will be doing round 6 this week as my hands in particular just haven't recovered enough. As this is a side effect that is cumulative it needs to be reasonably recovered before we start the next round. 

Tomorrow is the appointment with Niall so I let you know when I do. 

The funny thing is other things such as my feet are recovering well, which is strange because every other time they followed the hands, but not this time.  Like I said inconsistent and confusing.  Anyway better feet means I got to walk on the cross trainer for the last 2 days.  I really need to get some muscle tone back, the high nutrition /high protein diet means I maintain weight better but I think it's mostly fat. I'm currently just doing high protein and cutting back on the nutrition a bit. 

Round 5 Days 2-7

Well, it's been different again this time.  Although there are similarities each time it also is never quite the same. 

The fluid loss and the metallic taste both came early and at the same time. I really hate the metal taste as almost everything becomes hard to eat, and my sense of smell, for some reason, is magnified and even things I have always liked I can no longer stand the smell of.   Not really pleasant and way more fatiguing.  Fatigue has been an issue this time but I suspect it I think back yard enough I have always been fatigued around this time, I was probably too tired to remember.

The good news is the high protein diet appears to have assisted in smoothing the weight loss and the fluid dump.  So far this week I've gone from 74 to 76 and now down to 72, which is pretty good for this time.  I've also only needed to get up a couple of times each night which should have helped with the fatigue but for some reason didn't, I'll ponder that one. 

It's a beautiful morning here today (see picture) and I am sitting outside in the backyard with the sun on my shoulder.  I think I need to get more exercise as the high protein,  high nutrition diet have just added fat.  I did some potting about yesterday, changing some pots in the garden and it felt good. 

So to leave on a positive note i'm going to sit here and enjoy the morning for a little while more and than maybe a bit more gardening.

Round 5 day 1

Here I go again.  Outside today is an awesome day, so clear you can see the Dandenong Ranges really well.  It is late afternoon in the photo.

Everything is tickety-boo according to Niall,  so no change to treatment. 

Not much else to report.