Round 3 – Feeling Pretty Good

Cuddle Time!

Round 3 was this past Thursday. SO FAR, I have been feeling the best out of all three rounds. The worst of my nausea was immediately after my treatment. I took my “new” anti-nausea medicine as soon as I got home, and honestly, besides being tired, felt pretty good. Overall, I have been quite tired this time. It might just be from the medicine, but I’ll take tired over nauseous any day. So, there has been lots of sleeping since Thursday. How nice it is to sleep!

Aside from being sleepy, I’ve had the craziest hiccups to date. Friday was non-stop hiccups. Today, Saturday, still some lingering, but seem to be going away (I HOPE). The only time I don’t hiccup is when I lay down to sleep. Maybe that’s why I sleep so much this time, so I don’t have to hiccup! (And so I don’t have to hear my dear wifey laugh at my every hiccup.) LOVE YOU DEAR!

strange tastes

Millet Soup

Again with this round my sense of taste got messed up again. I still don’t know how describe it. Again some people say it’s a metallic taste. I think it’s like when you burn your mouth on something hot, and how everything tastes and feels thereafter.

Besides all the “Western” medicine I’ve been getting, I always get my fair dosage of Eastern medicine, too. Yes, there is the typical 多喝热水 (duo he re shui – drink more hot water) prescription, but also lots of yummy soups. One soup Luyang makes for me is a millet soup (小米汤)(xiao mian tang – little grain soup) (I think). This is supposedly the go to Chinese remedy for upset stomach. I prefer to drink this out of a mug, I discovered, when I took it to church last weekend, and didn’t have a spoon!

Black Chicken Soup!

She also made a blackened chicken soup.
(乌骨鸡汤)(wu gu ji tang – silkie soup).
These chickens have dark skin but very white feathers. Again, I think my Chinese is accurate here. I’m doing this without help! It is said that this chicken has properties for upset tummies as well.

I didn’t mention in the last post, but I’ve been starting to lose my hair since just before my second treatment. It accelerated for some time after the 2nd treatment, but seems to have stopped. We’ll see if it picks up again. My hair is definitely thinner, and has also mostly stopped growing. I might need to shave my stubble once a week. Kind of strange! If my hair never completely falls out, I’ll be quite exited. However, regardless I will eventually go clean shaven just for Luyang, as she has been looking forward to see my face hairless for the first time ever.

Mmmm Crunch Dragon!

Speaking of my dear wifey, she made my treatment #3 an extra special TREATment. Instead of hospital food for lunch, she went and got my favorite sushi from our favorite sushi place, Nikko Sushi! ALL of the nurses were jealous!

 

 

Next steps

TREATment treats!

Going forward, after my 4th treatment, it seems we will have another PET scan to see how things are going. Should a miracle happen, and the cancer is all gone by then, I could be DONE with treatments. This is obviously the best case scenario, but one can hope! The standard regiment is 12 treatments. The nodes in my neck, which were quite large and obvious, are essentially gone. I can barely feel them anymore. I no longer have breathing and coughing troubles like I used to. All other symptoms of the Lymphoma are gone (night sweats, chills, aches, loss of appetite, etc). How wonderful to feel that this terrible treatment is working!

I hope that I could be done with treatments before Christmas. What a gift that would be!

Who drew who?

We also started to fill out this goofy sort of coloring/story book that we got from Mom and Dad. A fun way to kill time at the hospital! As you can see, we are very artistic.

That’s all for now. Hopefully the nausea stays away and I can feel more normal more often.

Continued thanks and gratitude for all the prayers, well-wishes, and help from so many of you. We are forever blessed!

Getting Used to Things – Round 2!

Grrrr

Hello everyone!

Sorry that it has been awhile since I last wrote, so this one will be a little longer!

See that picture of Bella to the right? That’s kind of been my face lately.

My treatments are a little off schedule. I only had the second round of chemo last Thursday. My counts were too low the week before for treatment. However, the oncologist has decided that going forward, even if my counts are low, that we will proceed with treatment, as keeping to the schedule is important, despite any increased risks in infection.

Sounds good to me! The sooner this is all done, the happier I will be!

Helping dad install a new mailbox!

Something else I learned is that the oncologist’s office can do blood tests in about 5 minutes. The hospital tastes 1.5 hours or more. So last time, I was at the hospital for hours before they told me I wasn’t getting treatment. Frustrating to say the least. So, despite the additional expense, I have decided to do all my blood tests at the oncologist’s office the morning of treatment. It’s a small price to pay for spending less time in the uncomfortable hospital. I suspect this will reap dividends come winter!

On this 2nd round, I experienced the same intense nausea for 4-5 days, and still have lingering nausea. I’m now on my third medication for nausea. I guess we’re just going down the list of medications till we find something that works…I am used to my stomach being weak and upset on a regular basis, so this sort of pain is nothing new, but it’s certainly something I don’t care to have to deal with. I suppose until the chemo is long done and gone, my tummy is going to be upset to some degree. I’m writing this 11 days after my last treatment, and my stomach is still bothering me. Yesterday, it was probably the worst it had been since the days immediately following treatment. I’m learning to live with it, but sometimes it just gets the better of me. I get cranky and defeated.

Cleaning up the tree branches!

Thankfully, this time around, I have not had the headaches, fatigue, and mouth pains like I did the first round. Part of that may be because I was not also recovering from surgery at the same time. I attribute the lack of mouth pain to really being on top of oral hygiene. Brushing after every meal, baking soda rinse, and mouthwash. I understand that part of the problem with the mouth sores is that of a bacterial one, which is heightened by your body not being able to fight off the bad bacteria in the mouth as it normally would. So, keeping the mouth as alkaline as possible is the best fight against the sores.

Coming home from the p-a-r-k!

Speaking of surgery – my wounds are healing well, and most of the time I don’t even realize my port is there – until I bump into something – then I know!

One new symptom I had was that for about a day or two after treatment, everything tasted awful, and the same. I’ve read that some people describe it as a “metallic” taste. Whatever the taste, it was unpleasant.

I have, however, been eating better this time around, even through the nausea. The trick really is to eat little but eat often. My parents probably think that I am eating as much/often as Luyang does now! Before treatments began, I definitely wasn’t eating too much, as the symptoms of the cancer itself had really taken a toll on my appetite.

Helping fix the door!

Speaking of parents, my folks have been here for the past two weeks to help out with daily life. From bringing me home from the hospital, to grocery shopping, to making food and fixing things, it has been a wonderful blessing to have them here. It definitely took some burden off of us for awhile. Bella, I think,  was most excited of all!

We are very blessed to have such a loving and supportive family to help us get through this challenging time for us. We know not everyone is so fortunate!

My next treatment, Round 3, is coming up this Thursday. Hopefully the symptoms stay mild!

Until next time, thanks for reading, checking up on me, sending me cards, offering help, and all those wonderful things. God bless!