Chemo Treatment #4 (+ 4 days)

Chemo treatment #4 went well on Monday. Mom and Dad accompanied me for the 10:30am appointment. Prior to leaving for the appointment they gave me a small present - a new HeadBlade shaver.

My New Favorite Toy

It works surprisingly well and takes about half the time as my regular 5-blade razor. I'm on a weekly head shave cycle so it's not too onerous to shave a 24" dome. And once it's clean I am usually donning one of the two cashmere stocking caps my sister Les made for me. They are as comfortable and warm as a stocking cap can be - thanks sis! Another decent side effect is that my beard is not growing nearly as fast so I only need to shave my face every other day.

We arrived on time for the appointment and immediately were into the routine with Dr. Seifter and the Q&A followed by a quick checkout. My blood pressure is normal and weight is down just a few pounds. It's then straight to the Chemo facility. Anna and her son Chris were there so I was glad mom and dad got to meet them. The CBC this morning showed that my white blood cell count was 2900, still where we expect. I forgot to get a copy so I'll get the trend data at the next treatment. It was a fairly busy morning in the unit with 4 patients getting chemo the entire time. We were in the facility for just less than 4 hours and then heading home.

By late afternoon on Monday I was more tired than I remembered from previous treatments. And the metallic taste, tingling tongue, and queasy stomach (am I hungry?) were all back. Time to settle in for a week or so in this mode. And I feel pretty much the same today - tired and tired of the persistent metallic taste. It's been a struggle to get 8 hours of sleep due to work and getting up in the middle of the night. I need to work at getting to bed earlier. As you can tell my humor is dwindling a little with the fatigue. No worries though, Jen reminds me often enough that I'm still a smart ass at home.

I've also updated the Medical Timeline page to include the remainder of my appointments as they are now scheduled. PET/CT #2 is on Wednesday (05-Dec.) and I really hope to see less (fewer and smaller spots) than we saw on the first scan.  March 15 is the last scheduled chemo treatment - can't wait.

Much love to you all.