Quick Update

Friends,

Just a quick update on some medical changes to my therapy. Yesterday, I met with my oncologist and began my second round of chemo. It seems the first round of chemo is doing what it is supposed to be doing, my liver counts are improving, but my white cell counts are lower than we'd like them to be. Since white blood cells are basically your immune system, this is something that needs to be corrected. Therefore, yesterday I was given a shot of Neulasta, a drug that stimulates your bone marrow to produce white blood cells. The shot itself was uneventful, it was given in my stomach. However, the shot can cause some pain in your bigger bones in the body since it ask the bone marrow to go into over drive but since I'm already on narcotics, I'm unlikely to notice.

I also explained to my doctor I've been having trouble eating and keeping my weight up when on chemo, despite gaining 2 pounds since my first round of chemo (woo hoo!). He prescribed a steroid based pill called dexamethasone that, in addition to the zofran I've been taking, should help with the nausea and vomiting. These 2 drugs attack those side effects from different medical angles. Since I had my central line accessed yesterday, the nurse decided to give me the dexamethasone via an injection without diluting it first. Boy, was that a wake up call! All the sudden my body started to tingle, my butt started burning, and I felt really queasy. I yelled at the nurse and she said it was a normal reaction that should pass. It did pass, but the woman should have given me fair warning. What the hell was she thinking?! If that's what it feels like to get injected with steroids, I don't know how these baseball players put up with it.

I was also bad in taking my laxatives this past week, and had to have my second enema ever this morning for the constipation. Turns out the clog culprit was a monster log - getting that sucker out was massively relieving! (sorry if this is TMI) I have vowed to be religious with the laxatives and have added a new natural solution to the regimen that my good friend Henrik recommended, called Culturelle. It is an all natural probiotic that helps regulate the bacteria in your digestive system promoting regularity and boosting your immune system. Hopefully that will keep me on track.

That's all for now.....

Stay well,
Rhone