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
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!
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.
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
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!
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!
Very happy to hear that your treatments are having positive results in fighting the cancer. Also good to hear that the side effects are diminishing some. Sounds like you are properly spoiled. Continued prayers that you ace your treatment and can be done by Christmas!
Kathy Wilkins