Friday, December 13, 2013

2 in the bag

I love infusion days.  And that is seriously not a joke.  I've spent the last two weeks dehydrated and undernourished.  In those 2 weeks I've lost almost 9 pounds.  I've had good days and bad, ridden this rollercoaster up and down and it's pretty much kicked my ass at will.  But on infusion days it all gets better.  Sure, I have weird side effects from my chemo drugs, but everything is mixed with saline and dextrose water.  Before my infusion days I never have pee that looks normal.  It ranges from really dark to oh-my-god-should-I-call-the-doctor dark.  On my infusion days, I pee like 5 times while I'm there (that's like 3 days of regular pee) and it progressively looks like it's supposed to.  I also feel like a million bucks because I'm hydrated. 

But I have a whole new approach for this next two weeks.  Timers for hydration (every 15 minutes) and nutrition (every 2 hours).  New Boost Very High Calorie drinks for breakfast.  (530 calories in just 8 oz of liquid drink!)  Chicken thighs already grilled up and ready for eating, half barbeque and half roasted red pepper.  Miralax morning and night.  A better plan for sleep.  It means more meds, but I need to rest.  My body requires rest to heal and have a fighting chance in this long and protracted fight. 

Today's treatment was good.  It was a long day, full of delays.  I got to the center at 0715 this morning to check-in.  My genetics labs were late but I made that time up with my regular labs.  I've gotta say that I really like having a port.  It is so much easier than getting stuck each time.  The hard part about my labs this morning was giving a urine sample.  There was a lot of sipping water and walking around.  Once I was able to give my sample, there was just enough time to get down to my Dr's office for my appointment.  My Dr was out of town so I saw his PA.  After a 30 minute delay there, I headed up to my infusion appointment and was kept waiting another 45 minutes because some of my liver numbers were off which required an extra sign off from the PA.  All in all, I showed up at 0715 and was finally released at 1430. 

But enough whining...Here is what we learned:

White Count - down a bit but well within normal levels
Liver Bilirubin - Looks good!
Liver Enzymes - All elevated -- This was concerning to everyone, but isn't outside of normal with my particular chemo treatment.  The "O" drug is a heavy metal and is hard on the liver.  So we'll keep an eye on it.
CEA - Shot way up between last chemo and today.  I'll have to followup on that.   We didn't have the numbers before we left so I didn't ask while I was there.
Weight - Last visit I was 233 and today I was 224.  Like I said, it's all about nutrition and hydration for the next two weeks.  I would LOVE  see a weight GAIN, but will be more than happy with maintaining my current number or even just losing a couple of pounds this round.

I have a CT scheduled for the first week in Jan.  I will get those results on Jan 10th.  That will be our first empirical look into whether this is working or not.  Hopefully we have good news for the new year.  :)

Make a goal of peeing 4-7 times a day.  It means that you're properly hydrated.  Really, you'll feel so much better.

Jake

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