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Cycle 6A Complete

On Thursday I received my last dose of my A cocktail of drugs. My last dosage of Cyclophosphamide, Vincristine, and Doxorubicin(the red devil) that is. I won't be missing these drugs at all. My day of treatment was longer than I expected, and that was because of the Cystitis that I had developed in my last cycle. I received an extra hour of hydration along with an extra half hour of Mesna to protect my bladder. It was a pretty long day, but I got through it. The bladder irritation feels almost better. It's sometimes uncomfortable, but most of the time feels normal. 

Receiving my last dose of "The Red Devil"

The only thing that can get me through the Mesna


I'm not looking forward to my last B week which will be from the 17th-21st. There are some changes to my treatment which will make it my most difficult week yet. There will be two major changes to the week. 

1. The added an hour and a half to each day due to the added Mesna, and hydration. That will increase my time of treatment to around six hours. Add that to the wait time before I begin treatment, and the car rides, and it could amount to 10-12 hour days! It will be a long week. Right now I'm trying to decide between being hospitalized for the week, or staying in a hotel for at least 2 days of the week.  I'm leaning towards the hotel because I want to finish my treatment at Radnor even though it is probably the more difficult choice.

2. More Mesna! To protect my bladder even more I will be receiving an extra dose of Mesna that I will take later each day. I don't know how many times I have said over the course of my treatment how much I hate this drug, but I'm going to say it again. I hate Mesna! It's not even chemo, and it is my most dreaded drug that I receive each day of treatment. Why must it have a side effect that gives you the most awful taste in your mouth. It gives that side effect when administered through IV, but just wait. Guess how I will be taking that extra PM dose of Mesna? I will be drinking that garbage. I asked one of the nurses how bad it is, and she gave me an ugly face, and replied... Mix it with the strongest drink you can think of, and try to not even let it touch your tongue or you'll probably throw up. Great! I'm already receiving triple the dose of Mesna during my treatment compared to what I was receiving, and this extra Mesna is just adding more insult to injury.

Now that I got that all out of the way let's move on to how I'm feeling now. I'd say I'm just a little more tired than I usually am by now, but I attribute that to being a little sick. Everyone in my family has gotten sick, and I'm the last one to catch it surprisingly. It's just a sore throat, but it's annoying especially since the steroids make me so hungry, and it hurts to eat. I'm just taking it easy right now, and getting lots of sleep. I have the chills today, but the last few days I've been really hot. I even looked like I was sunburnt. I'm not hazy at all today which is why I'm writing this now. Today has been better than the last few days since I'm off the steroids. I'm done with those now as well. Last dose was last night, and my last Neulasta shot was on Friday. Seven more Neupogen shots and I'm done with shots. This last cycle is bringing lots of lasts. I won't miss any of this treatment at all, but I am cherishing these lasts. It is the best feeling ever as this is all coming to an end now. I finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel on my trip down to my treatment on Thursday. It took me a long time to find it; longer than I expected in the beginning, but now that I've made it this far there is no way that I can get lost. This whole treatment has gotten progressively more difficult, and I realize that this last week will be my most difficult week. 

I don't plan on turning around into the darkness of the tunnel, and losing the light as I have come way too far to not finish this off on my strongest note yet.


Comments

  1. JCorwinMarch 5, 2014 at 12:36 AM

    I stumbled across your blog as I am contemplating starting one of my own to document my cancer journey. I was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma in 2012 at age 34 while I was 19 weeks pregnant. To say the rest of that year and the first half of 2013 was hard is a wholly inadequate understatement. But both me and my baby have made it through in one piece and we are doing well now. I completely agree with you about the Mesna and that is what prompted me to write you. I only did 2 cycles in the hospital and the rest as outpatient and every outpatient cycle included ORAL mesna each day of chemo. I began to dread the mesna more than the chemo some days. I experimented with lots of ways to make it more tolerable and no type of drink did the trick. The only thing that got me through it was peanut butter. I hope you're not allergic because it really helped. You take a mouthful and completely coat your tongue with it BEFORE you take the mesna, mix the mesna in as small a volume of tasty liquid as you can (coke or root beer worked best for me), drink it like a shot while you still have the peanut butter on your tongue, and then after you've swallowed all the liquid put more peanut butter in your mouth. It really does help, that stuff is the nastiest thing I've ever put in my mouth by far. Good luck with your last week, it really is the hardest. The only time I REALLY wanted to quit was the very last day, but I stuck it out and I know you can too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mike JudgeMarch 5, 2014 at 8:57 AM

      Thanks for the tip. I'll be giving it a try for sure. You should definitely make a blog. Survival stories are great especially for a cancer as rare as Ewing's Sarcoma. I made my blog to help others going through the same thing.

      Delete
  2. UnknownMarch 5, 2014 at 10:00 AM

    Mike, your blog is informative and well written. I appreciate your willingness to document this challenging time in your young life. Glad the chemo is done. Many good wishes for you to resume your normal life.
    Anne Lewis

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownMarch 5, 2014 at 10:04 AM

    Oops. I forgot you have a rough week ahead. But you are almost ready to put this chapter behind you m

    ReplyDelete

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