Saba Beats Cancer

Woke to a better day and a happtly father's day.  Went on the two mile walk with the pups and Lee made me some whole wheat waffles which were easy to eat with the mouth sores.  Did some things and then watched women's soccer which is just amazing. So feeling a little better - still scared about getting more chemo on Tuesday to be honest with how my body is now. But we will talk with the care team tomorrow after the blood tests.  Now both feet have pain and finally figured out it is neuropathy caused by chemo - the walking should help and it was a little less painful than yesterday.  So more rest and prep for the final battle - late post tomorrow after the blood test and see if the kidneys are doing any better!

Damn  -stuck another night because of my kidney numbers.  My cratinine will not budget off 1.89 and the damn methotrexate is still at 0.2 and needs to be at 0.1.  At 72 hours I have always been at 0.08 every single time - until now.  Now it decides to just sit in my system wreaking havoc. I thought the leucovorin was helping flush it out - but a quick googly search reveals that leucovorin actually just counteracts the effects of methotrexate. The only flush is the constant bag of saline that is pumped into my 24/7 causing me to pee every 90 minutes.  Which is good - but not helping as much as it should.  A kidney specialist is supposed to take a look today. To what end I don't know - he will say the same thing.  Tomorrow. Shit. Asked about how this might affect the last R-EPOCH and right now they say it will not. He actually said I could stay right through Tuesday - I said, kill me now, please.  So that's where we are - the build up of tox...

Weather has been great. I have the energy and been eating well.  Took the pups for long walks both mornings in great weather. Nice breeze, gorgeous sky and not really humid which is rare for good old Houston.  We rode bikes yesterday to get a burger in the afternoon -- almost like normal people. Even met the new neighbors across the street.  Felt great to be normal again (albeit bald and with very little eyebrows).  Only thing that is off is the mouth sores and the fatigue - but getting through both. Will be perfectly healthy just in time to get some more chemo.!!  Woohoo! (that's by design of course) Had a great chat with the classmate who went before me on the double hit lymphoma, r-epoch train and he basically said reading the blog is like reading his journey.  And he is still doing great - though the mouth sores got worse on 5 and 6 for him and he didn't have the MTX midpoint.  He also had to stop reading the web on the disease as he got in t...

The great thing about cancer treatment is that you can do everything they say, do everything right and still get the fun stuff like mouth sores. So annoying but life the cancer lane.  I did the baking soda and salt rinses every two hours, got my zarxio in as soon as I could and then started by probiotic - everything I read that would keep these little buggers away and yet here we are.  Now they are not as bad as last time -so I will take the minor victory and call it a draw. Also went from constipated to the runs last night - just making sure I hit all the right bowel tones.  But no issues this morning. Took an immodium once during this journey and never again. Luckily all seems well in bowland this morning. Probably not what you wanted to read this morning. But my nurse pointed out that this is the nadir in the chemotherapy cycle. That lowest point where your body is just slammed by all the chemicals. And like a phoenix from the ashes, my body will recover over the...

Checked in with our care team prior to tomorrow to make sure I had the complete plan. They never really covered the plan with us - it just got kind of assumed.  And the plan remains the plan - no changes. 2 more chemos 2 more brain chemos One  my friends said he guesses it like an antibiotic. Doesn't matter when you feel better, you take the whole thing to make sure you kill it all.  So 20 more days in the hospital. That's the tough part - certainly better than what I was looking at from the beginning. I am a little more tired today and the mouth is really dry (pre-sore type stuff). So doing all my daily stuff to rally out of this before brain chemo on Friday.  Still eating and doing everything else - including walking the pups and did a lot for work today. Always a good feeling. Time for a nap.