July 17, 2012

Cycle 1.... Complete

Yesterday I finished my first cycle (three treatments, one each on the past three Mondays).  Now I have a break next Monday and I hope to spend the time recovering with the week off. I am happy to report I have very few side effects.

Fatigue has been the main issue and it comes sporadically. Some days it's in the morning, but most days it seems to come late in the evenings, after dinner. For the most part it feels like a real bad flu without the fever. Last night after treatment I was watching TV in bed by 6:30PM and fighting a nap. The reason I was fighting the nap was so that I would be able to get sleep later on in the middle of the night. For the most part I was able to stay awake, except for a 45 minute nap around 8pm. I was able to go to bed at a somewhat normal bedtime, I finally turned off the TV a little after 11pm.  Except for one bathroom break and less than an hour of television at 2am, I slept great.

Today as I write this, it is already early evening and not only have made it through the day without a nap, I am in no need of sleep at this time. Mary and I might even get to watch a movie tonight!  It doesn't take much for me to remind myself how much worse things could be. I could be sleeping constantly, dealing with other known side effects, or be back to where I was several weeks ago and be in need of far more pain meds than I am currently on.

One change we did agree to with the doctor yesterday was to adjust both my pain meds and steroid down slightly. The first change was to reduce the steroid (Dexamethasone) by half. I started yesterday afternoon and we'll give it a few days to make sure we don't cause any pain to resurface. If all goes well with reducing the steroid, in a week or so we will pursue further reduction of my pain medication. Mary has helped me to slowly transition the dose of my pain medication so that I no longer take any break through med and have stretched out the slow release med from 2 every 8 hours to 2 every 12 hours. Once we feel I am stabilized with the new steroid dosage, we are going to try changing the pain med to 1 pill every 8 hours. Hopefully, I will continue to tolerate the chemo well and the pain will continue to not be an issue. Being on less pain medication allows me to be more interactive and to mentally focus more easily. I am able to enjoy reading again.

Now that cycle 1 is complete, I hope the changes work, I pray for sound sleep at night and days that don't require too many naps! Thank you for your continued prayers and positive thoughts.

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For any readers in the Seattle area, I'd like to pass along this information about an upcoming golf tournament. The event is August 3rd and the beneficiary is the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Details can be found from this link:
http://www.rodgersfight.org/

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi David,

thanks for the positive news. Have been checking for a post every day and was starting to worry, but now I'm smiling as I write..

Great that you are experiencing minimal side-effects from the chemo. What's happening with the PSA?

Stay strong and keep your chin up. You and your familly are constantly in my prayers. I have no qualms in asking our Holy Father for a miracle - for both of us!!

love and prayers from across the pond.

Melvyn

mike vankeirsbilck said...

David
yesterday, (the 17th) was my birthday (47 btw) and this post was a great bday present to read. glad you are feeling better. my firend Doug had his surgery on monday. he is feeling good and is at home.

Bill Manning said...

Dave,

I hope you get tha sound sleep. I had similar flu like (or a hangover) when I did my taxotere cycles.

I hope you feel as good as you can.

Bill Manning

Ari said...

Hello, my name is Ari, I am a survivor (so far...) of two cancers, a widower of a cancer victim (now re-married..) and is dedicated to fighting cancer, and helping others do so.
I lived in Toronto, Canada (my family is in southern California), and last year, after marriage, I moved to the Philippines. I am majority owner of a Dialysis clinic, and built a unique cancer clinic, the one I dreamt of having when my first wife was struggling. I took her to Mexico clinics twice, for treatments (which were very successful!), talked to dozens of physicians, and always found lack of properly equipped clinics, which could do a lot better if they were.
Along the way, I have gained insight of how proper Hyperthermia should be applied. This is a method which doubles the success rate of conventional therapies, and alternative ones as well, provided it is done properly. I have purchased the most powerful device for this, and added two other types of devices, which when applied in the right order, prevent a process of DE-sensitizing of cancer cells to the effects of specific frequency hyperthermia. We also do mild whole body hyperthermia in order to strengthen the immune system (with no side effects),and help reach the right thermo-therapeutic levels within the tumour.(the right temperature simply destroys the tumour...). There are also other aspects to this, biological ones, which for lack of commercial incentive (UN-patentable..) is not pursued by multinational pharmaceutical corporations which control all medical research in the field.
I also introduced other forms of immunotherapy, and alternative cytotoxic elements, such as Helixor, a mistletoe extract, which has three times better success rate then most chemo agents, without the side effects.
I can give information about many clinics I learned about, (mainly in Mexico ang Germany)
If you are interested in getting free advice, please feel free to contact me, @ advancedcancertherapies@yahoo.com
Thanks,
Ari Idan