GVD- treatment 2

Yesterday I had my second treatment of GVD. The doctor said my bloodwork looked all good and physically I look pretty good. The mucositis that was starting earlier this week is both better and worse. I now have one open area behind my last tooth on the bottom left, but I don't have the feeling that my whole mouth will erupt into one giant mouth sore. The doctor looked at my sore and said "Yea, that will get worse." and gave me some suggestions for treatment/prevention and to ask for a script for pain if I needed one. With past chemos I've been exceptional at keeping mucositis to a minimum and I hope this round will be the same. I use a homemade saline solution a couple times a day (I prefer a slightly hypertonic solution as opposed to isotonic solution. It seems like the extra salt helps with inflamation in the short term) I do a quick brush after each meal, not a full-on brush but just to decrease the bacterial load in my mouth and I use a low alcohol mouthwash twice a day. It may seem like a lot of work but you have to remember that this is the protocol I used during my Auto transplant and I never developed mucositis then (A hospital record, I do believe).

This afternoon I'm supposed to go into the clinic and get a shot of Aranest and neupogen. These shots boost both my red blood cells and white blood cells. The chemo is famous for dramatically lowering my blood counts and the shots will support my levels so I don't need a blood transfusion or antibiotics. The worst part about these shot is that a couple of days after the injection I feel literally like iv'e been beat with a baseball bat. Iv'e had both these shots before individually and this will be the first time I get them in tandem so I expect to really be hurting in a couple of days. I suppose this is the price of avoiding another blood transfusion, which to me is the worst thing I've been asked to do during this whole cancer thing.

On a nonhealth related note, last night the whole family plus Auntie Em went to see Sasame Street Live. It was really fun, josh was jumping up and down and clapping and yelling at Elmo and the rest of the gang. The evening almost didn't happen because I accidently ordered the tickets thru ticketmaster and bought tickets for the wrong date. When I called to see if I could exchange for that nights show I got the standard "Its not our policy to exchange B.S." I'm not entirely clear on the circumstances but someone that had been following my treatment progress in the internet made a couple of phonecalls and arranged for tickets to be waiting for us at the ticketbooth free of charge to us. How Awesome!!

A Touch of mucositis

I woke up this morning and I could feel the beginning of mouth sores starting in my mouth. As of yet, I don't have any open spots or any areas that particularly hurt but I can feel that my mouth is getting "hot" in places. The mouth sores are the number one most commonly reported side effect of the chemo I'm on, and combined with my eternal steroid use, it's no suprise that I'm starting to get sores. I have some pretty good meds around the house that are left over from the SCT that I can (and will) use.

With this chemo I have changed my philosophy on pain management. On all the previous regimines I've accepted a certain level of pain and not used pain killers unless really needed (translation: never). The reason I accepted the pain was so that I could have an eyes wide open view of any changes within my body that might manifest as pain. With this GVD, if I even think I MIGHT have pain later, I go straight to the Lortab. I'm not messing around this time. The pain I'm experiencing is reasonably light, intermitant and easily treated. Mainly it is concentrated in my left lower lung and right lower lung. The significance of this is that this is obviously where my most threatening tumors are and the pain has really only taken hold since I've been on the chemo. I take that to mean that there is alot of inflammatory process going on in these battleground areas, and what that means to me is that there's some serious cancer killing going on there to. I have this irrational fear that I will become addicted to the Lortab and once chemo is over I'll have trouble kicking my habit. I know thats ridiculious but I've been pretty hardcore about not using pain killers and a total shift in doctrine towards a near habitual use is akward for me.

Anyway, in total GVD chemo remains the easiest chemo to date. Energy is still high, motivation still good. I'm having a little trouble sleeping (trouble falling asleep and staying asleep) but I still think it could be steroid effect. I fell off the decadron a couple days ago (the main suspect in my sleep trouble) and I taper off the prednisone before too long so I hope everything will resolve itself in a few days.

GND is pretty easy

The side effects from the GND chemo are still pretty light. The only thing really to report is the steroid effect I get. The steroids I get along with the chemo make me kinda anxious and give me a touch of obsessive-compulsive behavior. I get phrases and ideas stuck in my head and I can't stop thinking about them it's really more annoying than anything else. Otherwise, energy is good, appetite is very good, spirits are up, plan is to keep doing what I'm doing until something changes.