Hello:
The last 3 weeks have been more challenging than in the past. I am finishing up the 4th round of chemo, then Thursday a CT of most of my body, then more chemo starting Friday. and maybe a decision about whether i need surgery for the liver mass.
The frustrating change was adding neulasta - which increases the kind of white blood cells that fight bacterial infections - it retails for $6000.00 per shot, every two weeks. Whew! And it makes me really tired and crabby and feeling like I have a bacterial infection for about 5-10 days....
But another thing that is interesting. There is like NO sunlight here most of December - they call any sightings "sun breaks" - and I was getting pretty disheartened. So I tried a therapeutic light for seasonal affective disorder. Not only did my mood improve, but so did energy, and the neurocognitive testing, the results of which had been low and stable over 3 weeks, shot up by 10 points the first day, 15 points the first week of light therapy. (So if I use this daily for 5 weeks, I'll be smart?) Gotta see if there is any cognitive data for using light therapy.
Went to Yoga today, and realized that there is ototoxicity from at least one of the meds. The teacher, who has a wonderful British accent, kept telling us to roll up in a fecal ball to stretch. Sounds gross to me, but I am new to yoga. Finally I asked her - she mean "fetal ball" all this time.
Hope your are having a great time this holiday season. And taking time to give yourself and those you love your presence, not just presents.
I'm so proud of you. It is wonderful to have you write to all of us. It helps to better now how to pray for you. That light therapy sounds great!
ReplyDeleteHey Gus! I've heard the specialized shots for cancer can cost as much as car. It seems so unfair, but I am also glad they are available for you and others.
ReplyDeleteJoe and I spent last week on Whidbey, and we just couldn't get over that it's dark or almost dark most of the time. Even when the sun was shining it was so far south it was pointless. I'm really glad you got such good results with the light. I bet there are lots of people even in AZ who would benefit from more of the good light in the winter.
Keep those fecal balls rolling!
I'm glad to hear from you, these past few weeks with no update has been a rather deafening silence and I wondered how you were doing. Hope you had a nice giggle to yourself over the fecal ball. Please don't visualize that, it isn't theraputic...Glad you got the SAD lights; I wonder if you are more sensative to the lack of light, as you come from AZ? We're all cheering for you, hope you have a blessed Christmas.
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