Happy New Year

I'm hoping that everything will be fine in oh-oh-nine ;)

It's a great feeling to not have to go in for chemo treatments this upcoming week. I'll be going in on January 21st, for my first official "follow-up".

After that, they will continue to monitor my bloodcounts and bloodwork, flush/maintenance on my implanted mediport. It's a dual port Bard model, so that means TWO needles at once in the chestports (but NO chemo!). I refilled my prescription for the lidocaine today. I hope that I don't have to use it too often.

I'm feeling about as well as expected. I made the mistake of trying to clean some snow off a windshield without gloves and now I'm typing with one hand for a few days.
The neuropathy is probably the worst part, followed by the digestive tract "issues" and the occasional skin rashes and mouth sores, but it will now start to get better, although slowly, but I can deal with that.

I do hope that everyone enjoyed their New Year's Eve and best wishes to make it fine in 2009!

Treatments postponed until next week

I went in this morning and my platelet count had come up some, but my white blood cell count was down, so the on-call oncologist requested some tests (more bloodwork) to see if there was an underlying cause.

The doctor said that usually they see these kind of numbers after a patient's 5th or 6th cycle and it is unusual to see after only two cycles. So, he is recommending to my oncologist (who is away this week) that the chemo dosage be dropped to 80% and will have the "extra" test results back next week as well.

I had a hunch that it would be postponed and didn't even put on any of the numbing cream (lidocaine).
So, I'll finish this week with the antibiotic for the infection and hope for a better week, next week.