After the 3rd Treatment

I had my 3rd treatment on Friday. It turned out my concern about my FEV1 was unfounded. It turns out the DLCO [Hb] number is more important and it was fine. I guess this proves it doesn't make sense to worry about test results when you aren't qualified to evaluate them anyway.

I had an 8:00 appointment to get my blood drawn. I met with the doctor at 9:00 and then I was scheduled for my infusion at 10:00. Somehow things were slow to get started and I got my IV set up and fluids started near 11:00. Then the schedule went as follows:

Adriamycin - 11:05 - 11:15
Vinblastine - 11:15 - 11:20
Bleomycin - 11:20 - 11:25
Dacarbazine - 11:30 - ~12:40

I needed to slow down the Dacarbazine because I could feel it being pumped into me and it's not a comfortable feeling. A heat pack helped. I then got about an hour's worth of more fluids to reduce the chances of my getting constipated.

I got home by 3:00.

That night and the next day I felt great. I went to the gym for a 3 mile walk, I did some shopping and I went to a dinner party until almost midnight.

I went to bed at 2:00 AM on Sunday and slept until 9:00 Monday morning. Yes, you read that right. I slept 30 of 31 hours with only a 1 hour break to eat dinner on Sunday afternoon. At first, bed just seemed like a really comfortable place to be. Over time, I started feeling exhausted and couldn't get out of bed. This morning (Monday) I went to another doctor appointment, came home and, you guessed it, went to bed for another couple of hours until I had to go to yet another doctor appointment in the late afternoon. My doctors think I may have overdone it on Saturday and things caught up with me. My ENT said that I am showing signs of having a cold as well. The good news is that the remaining tissue in my adenoids continues to get smaller.





The last day kind of threw me for a loop. I think when things are going very well it's easy to get discouraged when you have a bad day. Some days will be good, some not so good. Even though I feel pretty good right now (just a little tired), I'm still going to rate my mood over the last 24 hours as a 6 out of 10.