Round 5: Brack - 5, HL-0...and a Few Things I'd Rather Do Without

Another good round. A bit more up and down later in the round than in previous rounds. I started back on Prilosec daily at the beginning of this round and the occurrences of queasiness or the metallic taste seemed to decrease. My lowest score was on day 7 (Friday) at an 87 and well below my running average for that day of the cycle. It was poor choices on my part, plain and simple. I put off lunch for a meeting at work and never caught up. All I could push down at dinner was plain rice and Newman's Own lemonade (it's the least sweet to me). And the day before that I had a dinner of RoFo (Royal Farms for the uninitiated) chicken and Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia. I had a craving and you'd think I was pregnant. Bottom line…dumb idea. And this was not best timing since Jen and I traveled on Saturday for 4 days for kid commitments. Travel, for the second straight time, caught up with me and my body and let me know it. Twice this week my temperature spiked to the high 99s so I started on Levaquin (Levofloxacin, 500mg) in case I have a bug. Interestingly, if you look this medication up, the Mayo Clinic website description says that it's an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections all over the body… also to prevent an anthrax infection after a person has been exposed to anthrax AND this medicine is also used to treat and prevent plague (including pneumonic and septicemic plague). So I've got that  going for me!

Even though it's been a decent round I would be remiss if I didn't mention a few things (side effects?) that occasionally drive me a little crazy. I got the idea when I was talking with our friend Danita last week. She is making great progress with her breast cancer treatment and should be done with her chemo rounds by now - GO Danita! She and I were comparing notes so I decided to keep track of a few things that I can't wait to put in the rear view mirror. Here goes:

• That metallic taste in the mouth 
• Numbness of the sides of my tongue
• Tingling or numb fingertips
• Runny nose at some point every day
• Raw nose, inside and out, that hurts to wipe or blow
• Mouth sores and random cold sores
• Walking 50' and losing my breath (thanks Bleomycin)
• Being cold often, especially my sizable dome, and not being able to shake a chill
• Retaining water (hands and feet swell) at randoms times
• Really dry skin (yes I've been using lotion) and constantly chapped lips
• Random pains that come and go over a 24 hour period (see example below)
• Random coughing bouts
• Difficulty trying to swallow absolutely nothing
• Not being able to take a cleansing breath without coughing
• Acute, mild pain going to the bathroom (#1 and/or #2, that's the nicest way I can say it)
• Insides of both elbows feels like I have needles sticking in them (I guess I miss chemo so much!)
• Waiting to sweat out a low grade fever
• Thinking about the ER each time my temperature goes over 99.5 (only three times so far)

I try not to focus or whine about any of these and just roll with it. For example, on day 6 I felt like someone had punched me in my ribcage just under my right armpit. I started laughing about it and that caused me to cough, which in turn caused more pain, which caused me to laugh…The pain went away a few hours after a couple Advil and didn't come back. I'm still laughing about it.

Other than that I'm doing pretty well.

Much Love To You All. And my deepest appreciation for all of the love and support this year. It makes it so much easier to keep that positive outlook.

And a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah (just ended) or otherwise joyous celebration this season. Tell your families and friends you love them. We are looking forward to 2013 in so many ways.