Monday was the longest day. I arrived at the University of Penn at Radnor at roughly 9:15, and we got in at 9:30. This was good because my appointment was at 10:00. This was the case everyday. I live 1 hour 45 minutes away from the facility, and we leave at roughly 7:15 just in case there are accidents. So if there aren't any delays, it's an early arrival. Penn at Radnor is only 15 minutes away from the facility in Philadelphia, but with traffic its an added 45-60 minutes. In 5 days that saves a lot of time and makes it a lot easier for me. There isn't anything bad I can say about Penn at Radnor. I really like it there. The nurses are so nice. It almost feels like home there. The rooms don't feel so hospital-like. So the first thing I needed to get performed on me before starting any treatment at all was getting my ports accessed. This was my first time getting this done since I got the drugs through my arm last time. Getting the ports accessed was a little scary for me since the nurse thought I already had it done before since I was already on my second treatment of chemo. So she didn't explain much and just stabbed me in the chest with the two needles. And its no exaggeration when I say stab either. There has to be some force in order for the needle to go in the ports. The first one didn't hurt at all and the second felt like a bee sting. She felt bad afterwards, but it was all in good fun.
After that I got the port flushed, which I hate so much, and unfortunately this needs to be done twice each day for the days I get treatment. The reason I hate this is because they flush it with saline, and oddly enough you can taste it. I can almost throw up as I'm thinking about it right now ugh! Then they get blood-work. After getting blood-work, the wait was long as they needed to do a lot of tests on it. Treatment didn't start until 11:30. First I got treated with some steroids and other pre-chemo drugs. Then I got my ifosfamide, and etoposide; the two chemo drugs. The drugs run one after the other, and it takes 3 hours for them to get in my system from the bags. The time goes fast. I usually just play on my phone or tablet, or just eat. I can't get too comfortable through. This is because one of my chemo drugs has been proven to cause bladder damage.To combat that they give you a ton of fluids. In the last two hours of treatment I get 2 liters of fluid. So you can probably guess what happens right? Yes, lots of trips to the bathroom. Like once every 10-15 minutes. So once this was finished, I got flushed, and got sent home. I was hungry since Monday was the only day that I didn't eat lunch while getting treated. My mom and I went to Panera Bread. I got the potato soup in the bread bowl. I wasn't too thrilled with it. I don't know why people go crazy over Panera it's overpriced and really not that good. The bread bowl didn't really taste that good, but the soup tasted good. I would just get the soup instead of the bread bowl next time. Finally we made our trip home. I got home by 6, and just went to bed. Monday was probably the second most difficult day of the week for me. It was just so long.
The rest of the treatments for the week were much quicker. This is because I didn't need to get my ports accessed again, and the blood work didn't need to be run through as many tests. As a result, I got out by 2:30-3:00 every day. Tuesday and Wednesday weren't too bad. We tried out some different places to eat. I really like the food court at Radnor. Its across the street from the hospital, and everything I got from there I liked. I got an Italian hoagie, and a shrimp bisque. Both were delicious. The other places weren't too good though. Everything ran smoothly on tuesday and wednesday except the fact that I caught a cold. My brother caught a cold on the Friday before I started treatment, and I feared that I would catch it when treatment started. I think that's how it's going to be for me during the treatment. If I'm around anyone that is sick, I will probably get what they have. As I'm writing this post, both him and I still have it. I feel like I'm getting over it quicker than him which is puzzling.
Then came Thursday...This was by far the worst day of the week. Right when I woke up, I knew things were going to be slow. I woke up with a sore throat, diarrhea, and extreme tiredness. The bad part about the tiredness part is that I couldn't sleep even though I felt like I needed it so much. The day itself was just as long as any of the days prior with the exception of Monday, but mentally it was my hardest challenge. If there were any days where I felt discouraged about getting treatment; it was Thursday. I'm usually a very talkative person when I'm around my closest friends and family, but even my mom commented that I said like 10 words the whole day. I wasn't myself in the slightest that day. I didn't eat much either. When I got home I took an ativan and fell asleep for hours. I woke up around 8 giving me roughly a 3 hours nap because I needed to take my meds. I went to bed after taking my meds.
Overnight a miracle happened. I felt rejuvenated. Like how I felt on Monday before treatment rejuvenated. I felt full of energy and ready to go. Everyone that I saw that day was surprised how I looked on Friday especially my parents. They didn't expect me to look like that, they expected me to be even worse than Thursday. Thank God for this. Everything about Friday went well for me. My oncologist was happy with my progress. Jimmy shrunk in size. I would have to estimate that he is about half of his original size but I don't know. What I do know is that this is the best my arm has felt in at least 6 months, maybe more. The area is actually squishy now, and not so hard like before. Visibly the arm doesn't appear much different than my other. There is only a tiny visible difference in the definition of my muscles in my arm. If Jimmy already died this much, what will be left of him in two more months? Nothing? It will interesting to see. The only problem I have now is even though I did say that its smaller and all, it actually is more painful. I think this is because the muscles aren't used to being able to function normally and now they are regaining that ability. I think this will go away with a little time. But I don't see myself shooting hoops this week even if I have enough energy to do it.
The weekend was more difficult than I expected, with Sunday being worse than Saturday. I was really congested, and like Thursday;really tired. Fortunately for me I didn't have treatment, so I listened to my body and just slept.
Like I said earlier in this post, today is the best I have felt in a week. Today I feel more alert. And that is the reason I could do this blog post. I tried to do this on Saturday and Sunday with no success. I would get stuck right at the beginning and then I would get really tired. It was like my brain couldn't take any processing. My brain was essentially crashing like a computer. Well today, my brain rebooted and it is running like I want it to. I did this whole post in one sitting and I don't feel a bit tired. Just hungry haha. Well, thats all for now, I'm going to eat some pizza.
Thank you to everyone for the prayers and support.
 |
| This is what I had in my chest all week |
After that I got the port flushed, which I hate so much, and unfortunately this needs to be done twice each day for the days I get treatment. The reason I hate this is because they flush it with saline, and oddly enough you can taste it. I can almost throw up as I'm thinking about it right now ugh! Then they get blood-work. After getting blood-work, the wait was long as they needed to do a lot of tests on it. Treatment didn't start until 11:30. First I got treated with some steroids and other pre-chemo drugs. Then I got my ifosfamide, and etoposide; the two chemo drugs. The drugs run one after the other, and it takes 3 hours for them to get in my system from the bags. The time goes fast. I usually just play on my phone or tablet, or just eat. I can't get too comfortable through. This is because one of my chemo drugs has been proven to cause bladder damage.To combat that they give you a ton of fluids. In the last two hours of treatment I get 2 liters of fluid. So you can probably guess what happens right? Yes, lots of trips to the bathroom. Like once every 10-15 minutes. So once this was finished, I got flushed, and got sent home. I was hungry since Monday was the only day that I didn't eat lunch while getting treated. My mom and I went to Panera Bread. I got the potato soup in the bread bowl. I wasn't too thrilled with it. I don't know why people go crazy over Panera it's overpriced and really not that good. The bread bowl didn't really taste that good, but the soup tasted good. I would just get the soup instead of the bread bowl next time. Finally we made our trip home. I got home by 6, and just went to bed. Monday was probably the second most difficult day of the week for me. It was just so long.
The rest of the treatments for the week were much quicker. This is because I didn't need to get my ports accessed again, and the blood work didn't need to be run through as many tests. As a result, I got out by 2:30-3:00 every day. Tuesday and Wednesday weren't too bad. We tried out some different places to eat. I really like the food court at Radnor. Its across the street from the hospital, and everything I got from there I liked. I got an Italian hoagie, and a shrimp bisque. Both were delicious. The other places weren't too good though. Everything ran smoothly on tuesday and wednesday except the fact that I caught a cold. My brother caught a cold on the Friday before I started treatment, and I feared that I would catch it when treatment started. I think that's how it's going to be for me during the treatment. If I'm around anyone that is sick, I will probably get what they have. As I'm writing this post, both him and I still have it. I feel like I'm getting over it quicker than him which is puzzling.
Then came Thursday...This was by far the worst day of the week. Right when I woke up, I knew things were going to be slow. I woke up with a sore throat, diarrhea, and extreme tiredness. The bad part about the tiredness part is that I couldn't sleep even though I felt like I needed it so much. The day itself was just as long as any of the days prior with the exception of Monday, but mentally it was my hardest challenge. If there were any days where I felt discouraged about getting treatment; it was Thursday. I'm usually a very talkative person when I'm around my closest friends and family, but even my mom commented that I said like 10 words the whole day. I wasn't myself in the slightest that day. I didn't eat much either. When I got home I took an ativan and fell asleep for hours. I woke up around 8 giving me roughly a 3 hours nap because I needed to take my meds. I went to bed after taking my meds.
Overnight a miracle happened. I felt rejuvenated. Like how I felt on Monday before treatment rejuvenated. I felt full of energy and ready to go. Everyone that I saw that day was surprised how I looked on Friday especially my parents. They didn't expect me to look like that, they expected me to be even worse than Thursday. Thank God for this. Everything about Friday went well for me. My oncologist was happy with my progress. Jimmy shrunk in size. I would have to estimate that he is about half of his original size but I don't know. What I do know is that this is the best my arm has felt in at least 6 months, maybe more. The area is actually squishy now, and not so hard like before. Visibly the arm doesn't appear much different than my other. There is only a tiny visible difference in the definition of my muscles in my arm. If Jimmy already died this much, what will be left of him in two more months? Nothing? It will interesting to see. The only problem I have now is even though I did say that its smaller and all, it actually is more painful. I think this is because the muscles aren't used to being able to function normally and now they are regaining that ability. I think this will go away with a little time. But I don't see myself shooting hoops this week even if I have enough energy to do it.
The weekend was more difficult than I expected, with Sunday being worse than Saturday. I was really congested, and like Thursday;really tired. Fortunately for me I didn't have treatment, so I listened to my body and just slept.
Like I said earlier in this post, today is the best I have felt in a week. Today I feel more alert. And that is the reason I could do this blog post. I tried to do this on Saturday and Sunday with no success. I would get stuck right at the beginning and then I would get really tired. It was like my brain couldn't take any processing. My brain was essentially crashing like a computer. Well today, my brain rebooted and it is running like I want it to. I did this whole post in one sitting and I don't feel a bit tired. Just hungry haha. Well, thats all for now, I'm going to eat some pizza.
Thank you to everyone for the prayers and support.
We are all praying for you and think of you often. After you beat this I'd love to see you again. Im glad to hear you're in good spirits!
ReplyDelete