So Far So Good

I started the Torisel chemotherapy yesterday and so far I'm feeling good. So far I'm feeling strong.

I'm not counting my blessings quite yet though. I'm not naive. I'm sure the Torisel will have some cumulative effects on me as it works its way into my system, week after week. It is chemotherapy afterall, the medical term for poison.

I do think I'm feeling stronger because I'm off the Nexavar chemotherapy. After 14-months it wore my body down. I lost more than 40-pounds. It dried out my skin and convinced most of the hair on my body to fall out. And it drove my digestive system nuts. That's not mentioning the fatique, tremendous fatique, that would ensure that I did everything in slow motion, or not at all.

Late Thursday we did receive word that my oncologist has been hospitalized. He had a kidney transplant in late summer of 2007. He had been doing well, but complications apparently developed. His prognosis is unknown but our thoughts and prayers are with him. We knew something was wrong because his behavior had changed and he seemed to stop caring about his patients, or at least this one. Now we know that something was going on.

So we started the Torisel Friday under the direction of an oncologist we never met before. He was a good guy, looked like he was about 25-years old though. But as a surgeon once told me when all this started, "Find a young oncologist because they are more in tune with the latest treatments."

Lancaster General Hospital does not put "ports" in place for the IV drip until your veins leave no other option. So they stabbed me in the forearm and hooked up the IV. That's fine with me. I'm going to get stabbed by needles a lot in the upcoming months it seems. Besides the weekly IV I will have to get a weekly blood test to ensure that the Torisel isn't creating trouble.

Barb kept me company in the chemo room. She's such a sweetheart. I'm so fortunate.

We were the youngest patients in the room. I always notice that most of the cancer patients at the cancer center are 20-years our senior.

First they set me up with a bag of Benadryl, which helps offset any allergic reactions. Then I got a bag of saline solution. And then they hooked up the big bag of Torisel. I figured the Torisel would be some neon purple color or something. I don't know why. But it just looked like harmless water.

Barb and I did a couple crossword puzzles, taking turns, we finished 'em all. (We buy easy crossword puzzle books. It makes us feel smart.)

I was even allowed to eat a Baby Ruth bar, while the chemo dripped into me! This was novel. On Nexavar I had to leave at least three-hour windows around my treatment time without any food. The stomach had to be empty, or there was a price to pay.

This morning the alarm clock did not go off at 5 a.m. like it has every day for the past 14-months. I slept until 6:30 a.m. 6:30! Can you believe that?

And yesterday, just because I could, I ate some snack mix at 3:30 in the afternoon. I haven't had food between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. in 14-months.

To some extent I feel like a prisoner who has just been set free.

But as my oncologist once said, if your feeling bad and suffering from symptoms then that's how we know the chemo is working.