Round 4, the shortest round at 11 days, was a busy 11 days with PET/CT #2 and PFT #3. Fortunately it was mostly uneventful in terms of chemo effects. Days 4 and 5 were probably the worst two days I've had on chemo yet. Both days I had achy joints, less energy, and a spotty appetite. I had to force myself to get up and stay active when I felt like laying on the couch. The metallic taste in the mouth gets old quick. I probably sound like a broken record on that account. And my fingertips occasionally tingle, the sides of my tongue sometime feel numb, the top of my head is whiter than fresh fallen snow, and now and again I can't swallow larger bites or large gulps of liquid as easy as I used to…other than that I'm doing pretty well. As a friend from work said last week "…be honest, don't tell me everything is peachy." Not everything was peachy in Round 4. My good friend Eileen felt the same way on the same days as me, so we commiserated. Below is the latest graph. The graph was getting busy with all rounds on one page, so I am now showing just the latest round with the running average.
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| Round 4 Score |
I also had my second PET/CT. I had the same tech as last time and he sent me home with the images from both scans as well as some knowledge about the software that I can use at home to view the images/movies. The results look promising and the report looks even more promising but I need to wait for Dr. Seifter to say the magic words. Below are some images from both scans. Take a look to compare the images from both, particularly in the neck region where the crosshairs are. Pretty cool.
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| PET/CT #1 Image |
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| PET/CT#2 Image |
One really cool thing happened during this round. My dad, who has never sent an email to anyone other than family or someone connected to a great fly fishing destination, struck up an email conversation with the President and Founder of HeadBlade, Todd Greene. He told him about our battle to beat Hodgkin's Lymphoma and next thing you know Todd makes me the HeadBlade "User of the Month". Here's a link to the really cool writeup:
You know it's a solid company when they offer a great product, fronted by a sincere and accessible owner, and shirt sizes up to 3X - for us larger than normal guys. Thanks for everything Todd, particularly the kind words, positive thoughts, opening your community up to my story, and the honor of being a recognized HeadBlader. Much health, happiness and success to you and your team at HeadBlade.
Last but far from least, I stopped in to my local a few days ago – The Judges Bench. Mike, the owner and a beer/single malt/cognac/bourbon aficionado (my kid of guy!) graced me with a small snifter of 50 year ofd cognac. Wow, what an expression! I'm sure it's doing it's part helping to get me cured.
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