I enjoy the last few days of a chemotherapy cycle - most side effects are either minimal or gone.
This weekend, for instance, my family and I were able to drive north to a family reunion. That's over 2 hours driving either way, plus the reunion itself - add another 5 hours. But I made it with only a 20-minute nap at the home of our host. More importantly, I was able to drink the refreshingly cold drinks, eat most of the food offered, and otherwise enjoy the event as if I wasn't being treated for cancer.
This week, the cycle begins again. Today, it's blood work and another consultation with a medical oncologist to see how I'm doing and what the blood tests report about my overall health.
I've found that most medical oncologists don't automatically provide details about the blood work. You have to ask specifically and assertively for each measure. Even then, the doctors appear curious that a patient would have an interest in things like white blood count, hemoglobin, platelets, absolute neutraphil count, and neutraphils. True, I might be in a minority, but I'll bet there are a lot of people being treated who would find the overall trends of those measures of at least passing interest.
In my own case, the blood counts tell a story which is sometimes at odd with my overall sense of well being. If I look at the trends from January 9th (when my combination chemoradiation therapy began) to today, the story is very clear. I am far less robust and far more vulnerable to infection than when I began.
This was brought home to me in the last chemotherapy session when I was able to compare my counts with a person in a nearby recliner receiving her first treatment. Even though she was a good 20 years my senior, her white blood cell count, hemoglobin, etc was far better than my own.
I realize that the medical oncologist will declare a treatment holiday if my counts get too low. Since I haven't had any holiday, they must all be high enough. Still, those low values are something of which I must remain conscious, especially when I want to be with crowds celebrating something like, oh, say, the World Cup win by Italy. Now that kind of decision would be foolhardy.
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I've just returned from my consultation with yet another medical oncologist. My counts are all better this week! In fact, I'm doing so well that the oncologist doesn't think I need to see her again for another month.
On the other hand, as I described the neuropathy (tingling in the finger tips and sensitivity to cold) and fatigue I experienced after the last treatment, she indicated that I'm a textbook case. What's worse is that these two side effects are cumulative throughout the entire chemotherapy treatment cycle. The neuropathy is even worse. It tends to hang on for weeks, sometimes months, after treatment is finished.
She also indicated that as the fatigue and neuropathy accumulate, we may need to reduce dosages. For this we just wait and see. In the meantime, I should just continue doing what I'm doing, making sure that I have at least 2 or 3 days after each treatment cycle to do nothing except sleep, nap, and take it easy. I think I can do that!
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