Well I received my first high dose chemo today and thankfully it was drama free. In fact, the hydration (so far) has been the worst part. I had to get up at 6:00 a.m. this morning and hook myself up to 1000ml of sodium chloride mixed with a little potassium. I ran this (a little pump in a bag) until I arrived at the clinic at 10:30 where I was given Zofran, some more saline then my chemo. I'll have to be hooked up to this pump until tomorrow morning so the Melphalan is completely flushed out of my system. It has to be out of my system for the stem cells to survive when I get them back tomorrow.
The crazy thing is my high dose chemo infusion took less than an hour to administer. Hard to believe this short amount of time being given chemo can do so much damage to my immune system. This 60 minutes of infusion is going to completely wipe out my bone marrow, and most of the other rapidly dividing cells in my body. The only thing that will save me now is stored in a freezer at the SCCA! That said, I'm praying the Melphalan kicks the crap out of the Hodgkins cells that are still lurking in my body. I will go to bed tonight visualizing the tumors in my body shrinking and dying off.
Luckily (for now) I don't feel too bad... Just had a couple slices of pizza and they're staying down with no problem. In fact, so far the only thing I feel is a little fatigue. I know this will change over the next few days though. I'll try and update tomorrow when I get my cells back.
1 comment:
Chris, just read your last couple of posts and am so happy for you that the insurance company has come through for you. You are in my prayers that this latest treatment is 100% effective in wiping out the cancer in your system. Your positive attitude is so refreshing and I look forward to your next update. I am sure your dad and Marty's visit has been welcome and now you know why I have been crowing about Costco all these years. Stay strong, Dude and know that so many are pulling for you.
Rob
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