Skip to main content

Cycle 2 Complete

I can't believe I'm already two cycles into treatment! When I look back on these past two months, it seems like the time has really gone fast. Last week didn't seem much more difficult than the first time that I got the B treatment. This time I listened to my body much better and went into bed around 7 every night. I also took ativan at the end of my treatment(like 30 minutes before I left) for nausea, and to help with sleep. It helped tremendously because the car ride home was probably the most difficult part of the B treatment. I would feel so sick, but it would get better when I would get home. But with taking Ativan, I was in and out of sleeping for the ride home, and I was much more comfortable. It was good that I didn't have to get Lasix this week because that would have sucked. The nurses said that I have good kidneys cause I pee like every 10-15 minutes when I get my treatment. I still get a little swelled up, but my kidneys do a really good job of getting the drugs out. They take my weight every morning, and I didn't really have my weight fluctuate too much, but some people can gain as much as 10 pounds in a single day due to fluid retention.

On Monday Joey went to the clinic to see me get treatment. It was nice that he had a day off from school, and he chose to be with me to watch me get my treatment. Joey being there helped the day go much faster for me.

This week was also the first time that I got to meet a cancer patient who is around my age. Her name is Julie, she is 21, and there all week like me. It was her first week of treatment, and some of her chemo was the same as mine. It was actually kind of funny because we were in competition for the bathroom all week. Seeing someone there who is around my age made me feel better.

Me with my chemo
Right now I feel great. I'm a little winded, and the neuropathy in my fingers is a little worse, but those are my only complaints. Saturday was a sleepathon for me. I was already feeling pretty good yesterday! I'm going to have a friend over in a few hours. It won't be for long though. I don't want to push it too hard yet. It should be fun, I haven't seem him in a while. 

I had an appointment with my oncologist on Friday after my chemo, and he was happy with how I'm responding to the treatment. He couldn't even feel Jimmy in there. He was happy with my health, and blood counts too, which is huge. The plan right now is that I'll have surgery 2-3 weeks after my third cycle of chemo, then 2-3 weeks for recovery, and finally 3 cycles of chemo. So that means I'll be done by April, and my birthday present this year will be surgery. That's pretty sweet that I'll be done in April though. I was expecting 4-5 cycles, but since I responded so well its gonna be 3. I can take a summer class this year to get back into school mode now. If you count surgery as a cycle, then that would give me 7 cycles. So if I were to compare my treatment to a week, then I would be on Monday night/Tuesday morning.

The reason why these past two months have gone so fast is because of all of the support I have. Support in the form of get-well cards, having friends over, or encouraging text messages really brighten up my day. This support really helps, and I just want to thank everyone for it. 



Joey went to my appointment on Monday

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 24, 2013 at 12:28 PM

    Hi Mike, I was actually just reading a few of your posts and had a quick question about your blog. I was hoping you could email me back when you get the chance, it would be much appreciated thanks!

    Emmy

    ReplyDelete
  2. PatriciaOctober 27, 2013 at 1:21 AM

    Hi Mike, my 20 year old son also has Ewing's Sarcoma and is a week or so behind you in treatment. His primary tumour is in his L3 in his spine. His treatment is very similar but he spends a week IN the hospital. You can read about him on my blog: www.patriciaspage@wordpress.com Otherwise look up Patricia's Page wordpress. It is very helpful for us to read about you and what you are experiencing. Sorry to meet you under these circumstances.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First Entry!

Today is my first post on my blog about my battle with Ewing's Sarcoma. The main purpose of this post is to get my readers to know a little bit about me, and to provide a little background of this cancer that I have. First and foremost I am 19 years old, live in a family of 5 with two great younger brothers, and loving parents. I love to play sports, video games, and I'm very passionate about technology. I don't really have a favorite sports team because I don't like to watch sports, but my favorite sport to play is basketball. I'm not much of a bragger, but I am very good at basketball because I'm very athletic. I can dunk easily. Check it out...  mike's dunks on youtube . I am a sophomore student at Penn State University majoring in Computer Science. I'm also from Pennsylvania, in the small Mountaintop area.  Personally, I am a very reserved person, I like to keep to myself. It might be surprising to you that someone that is so reserved would mak...
15 comments
Read more

10 Year Survivor

Hi everyone, its been a while. I think this might be the largest time gap between posts. I've had a tough time with this entry, coming back to it from time to time over the last several months. Every time I finished editing I just did not like it and scrapped it. Hopefully take 4 is the charm, lets get into it. Late in 2023 I became a 10 year survivor and also turned 30. It was a deep time of reflection for me. There were many questions I asked myself, but the most challenging ones included:  Why am I still here?  Am I happy?  What changes do I need to make to become happier?  Am I ready to make those changes?  What are my goals?  What has gone well these last 10 years?  What do I want to do better going forward? Very deep, uncomfortable topics and questions I had been stressing about, but avoiding for years. It was both empowering and deeply saddening to reflect on these topics. I hated to admit it at the time, but I was very unhappy. I was going thro...
10 comments
Read more

It's Back Again

Since my last post I have had two sets of scans.  I had my first scan in March, and with that came uncertainty. It appeared to have grown on the scan, but my primary oncologist, and surgeon from last summer remained skeptical of this being a recurrence. My oncologist in Cleveland believed it to be a recurrence. His opinion was that it would need to be taken care of sometime this summer. My most recent scan has now put both of my oncologists in agreement. It's now 99.9% likely to be another recurrence. It is now measured at 9x8 mm, up from 6.8x6 mm in December. Luckily it is growing slow for Ewing's, and at least nothing else has come up on the scans yet, but it is still terrible news. This will need to be taken of, and will be soon. The best option for me after consultation with both of my oncologists is to enroll in the Vigil trial ( https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03495921 ).  It was originally slated to start taking patients at the end of June, but has ...
11 comments
Read more