About 8 weeks ago I started getting a pain in my stomach like I figured I was getting an ulcer. I called my doctor and she said to try Prilosec and see if that helped. I got a 2 week supply and when that didn't work, I tried another 2 week supply. I called doc back and she gave me the name of a GI doc to see.
After a consultation and quickie checkup, he scheduled me for an endoscopy 2 days later, Friday. This was a piece of cake as I was asleep for it, though when he told me to roll on my side after hooking up the IV, I asked him what end he was planning on sticking the tube. The next thing I remember was waking up, the procedure done. I'll never know for sure, but I have a pretty good idea an endoscopy goes down the throat.
Back in his study the GI told me it seems I have a "malignant ulcer" and further tests would reveal what was behind it. Best case (and most probable) was the lymphoma, which would be better than some other gastric cancer. If it was the lymphoma, it was easily treatable with medicine, which I, for some reason, took to mean I would be on some pills for a while. Anyway, I'd have a chance to discuss this further with my internist who also luckily is a hematological oncologist and has been the doc monitoring my lymphoma. I'd have the results the following Wednesday. Oh yeah, also, about 2 weeks prior, I developed a pain in my hip so in addition to walking around slightly hunched from the stomach pain, I had a limp. Quite an attractive Quasimodo I must have been.
Sure enough, it turned out to be the lymphoma in my stomach and also in my hip, so a PET/CT scan was scheduled for a couple of days later. While on the phone with my doc, she told me to stop by her office so she could give me some prescriptions and also she wanted to take a look at my veins to decide whether or not she's need to put in a port so I wouldn't need to get freshly poked for each treatment.
WHOA!! What was that? All of a sudden it hit me that this wasn't just going to be some pills, that this was going to be actual chemo treatments and I felt a little bit rocked by this revelation, this wasn't foolin' around anymore.
Well, as with all things, after the shock came acceptance and, as the prognosis was so good, I looked at the whole thing as an adventure.
The PET/CT scans gave final confirmation of the newly active lymphoma, and those tests will now be a baseline against which progress will be compared after the last of the six treatments (one every three weeks).
So I had the first treatment 2 weeks ago, on the 15th. It wasn't bad, just hooked me up to an IV and dripped stuff into me for about 2 hours. The red stuff in the picture at the top is the stuff that makes your hair fall out.
I got home after the first treatment and immediately took a nap. When I woke up the very first thing I noticed was that my hip didn't hurt
at all and my stomach felt much better. I couldn't believe the meds worked so fast, but all of a sudden I didn't need 10 percosets a day just to get around! That night, AM stopped by to see how I was doing (she's been an absolute angel and totally there for me during this whole thing, and probably more worried and scared than I am). I was feeling so good and able to move around so painlessly that I did a strip tease for her and we laughed and hugged and she cried a little but mostly from relief this time.
For the next several days I took about 14 pills each morning, part of them components of the chemo and some of them to counter act the effects of the chemo (like anti-nausea, etc).
The things I've noticed so far are 1) My sense of taste is different. Everything tastes a bit off, and alcohol, wine in particular, tastes awful. 2) I get really exhausted around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and have to come home and take a nap. 3) I'm usually not hungry. 4) I have
no sex drive.
I mentioned the
shaving thing in my last post. This morning when I got out of the shower I was neatening up my hair and when I looked at my hand there was a bunch of hairs in it. Now if I grab on to a few hairs on my head and give a little pull they come right out and that's kind of weird.
Anyway, the next treatment is next Wednesday and will run about 6 or 7 hours as another drug is being introduced and this should be the worst of the treatments. My cousin, K, is a nurse at Sloan Kettering. She came by my apartment a couple of night before the first treatment and we had some pre-chemo cocktails. Quite tasty. She's going to sit with me thru that next treatment, monitoring my blood pressure and watching for any nasty reactions. Since she's going to be with me, I'll be able to have this one done in the doc's office rather than having to go up to Mt Sinai for it.
A week later, I'll go for another PET scan and a week after that I have a consultation with some other docs about a probable bone marrow transplant. More about that in my next post.
In the meantime, I have a court date this Friday with my soon-to-be-hopefully-officially-ex-wife. Just what I need right now. No wonder I have an ulcer!
Isn't today HBF (half bald Friday)?
