Less than a week to Cycle 4

Well past the half way now!  The past few days have been going well and my energy has been very good.  I have been able to continue full work days plus a bit of work around the house and continuing with my bike trainer; although I did miss today's scheduled trainer ride.  Lori had her third in the Island Race Series and it was just outside of Nanaimo in Cedar, a challenging 12KM with a few nasty hills, since this involved me being away from the house for most of the day and I was not going to be able to do my ride I decided I would give the run a go.  In the past I have been able to run this route in 50 minutes or so with last year in 52:45 I was going to take today as it came. Considering I have not run in a few months I was not expecting to come very close to my previous times, I was going to give it a solid effort though.  I set out to run a 4:20/KM to start and see how long I could keep that going and then adjust as I needed to, the answer was about half way and then the KM's gradually took a bit longer as I went and as the hills were long so to were my KM times.  I ended up with the tank emptied knowing that I had no more to give and feeling that I had done my best for the day I crossed the line in just over 56 minutes and am VERY happy! 

Post run my legs feel like they have been pushed but I feel otherwise good, I have decided that I will not run anymore races without training for them and will stick to the bike for now.

Lori had a great race as well and was running so  well at the end that I could not run her all the way in, we both come in 9th in our perspective age groups and are pleased as punch to have competed together once again.

This week I have the usual pre-treatment schedule of blood work Wednesday followed by the big drip on Thursday and a rest day on Friday.  I will be posting more frequently in the next few days.


Cheers for now
Don

mid-cycle 3 update

All is well, I am feeling my normal self for the past few days.  I continue to work from home in an effort to avoid the cold and flu season at the office and have been able to get on the bike three times a week to do a pretty good hour or 90 minute workout.  My energy has been good and I am sleeping better now as well.

Cycle 3 Day 6

So I have cleared the active portion of cycle 3, I have no more medications until cycle 4 which starts on Valentine's Day. I had a much better sleep last night and am feeling pretty good today, I did another 1 hour on the trainer this morning, I did not realise the tour photographer had come back from their run already...

Oh well at least my hair looks good!

Cycle 3 Day 5

Last night was not a good sleep at all, I think I managed to get only a couple of hours worth of sleep.  The morning was good and productive work wise but the afternoon has caught-up with me and I am now tired but will make dinner and get through the evening and hopefully get a good night's sleep tonight so that I can start to feel normal for the remainder of the week.

Steroids are all done for the next couple of weeks and I can get back to normal and enjoy things again... I have decided that I do not like taking steroids at all so once I am done with chemo I can honestly say that they will not be part of my athletic future.

'til next time.

Cycle 3 Day 4

It has been another good day today, very busy...

I managed to do a 90 trainer ride on the bike and felt good for the duration.  Lori headed up and ran the Cobble Hill 10K race and did very well.  I put a second coat of paint on the spare room walls and made dinner for some friends.

Feel good this cycle with none of the soreness in the throat and mouth that I had in cycle 1 and very little of the foggy brain I had on cycle 2.  This stuff really does boggle, I am never really sure what to expect from cycle to cycle or even day-to-day so we continue to hope for the best each day and are very happy when it happens!

Tomorrow is my last day of Prednisone for this go around then I get to detox for a couple more weeks and I will be more than half way through the 6 cycles!

Cycle 3 Day 3

Last night was not a very good night's sleep but managed to get through and felt OK today, had a great morning visiting friends and spent the afternoon painting the spare bedroom.  Managed to get through the day without a nap and am ready for a good night's sleep.

All continues to go well and I am looking forward to my trainer ride in the AM.

Cycle 3 Day 2 Part 2

A quick update, I am feeling great today!  Went for a 1 hour ride on my trainer and that felt really good.  I have been doing a few things around the house and went out for a 45 minute walk to a friends place then for lunch listen to some records and back home. 

Day 2 has been a very good day!  I am off to cook dinner now...

Cycle 3 Day 2

The rest of yesterday was non-eventful, I just relaxed and took it really easy.  Tried to control my appetite and eat regularly and drink lot of water.  I am always so hungry after the treatment and it would be very easy to eat a weeks worth in the day or two following. 

I had a great sleep last night and am feeling good this morning, puffiness in my face has gone down but it is still warm and flushed from the medications, this should pass over the next couple of days.  I am not nearly as edgy as I was in cycle 2 so hopefully that continues as well.

If anything changes I will do a second post later in the day; but typically the days seem to go as the mornings do.

thanks for reading.

Cycle 3 Day 1 Part 2

I am back home after having a bit to eat and heading for the comfy couch... all went well, no surprises.

Cycle 3 Day 1

Well today is the big drip...

I went for my blood work, weigh in and oncology appointment yesterday, the blood work came back close to normal with a few white blood cell related markers a little low but just under the low end of the normal range so nothing to worry about.  I have managed to control my diet enough to stay at a consistent weight and the oncologist did an exam and determined that things were going well and my body was responding well to the treatments.

We had a discussion around adjusting dosage of the prednisone and determined that it should remain the same.  We will keep an eye on how I feel this cycle and revisit before my next cycle starts.

We also discussed that I am most likely going to have all 6 cycles of the chemo but we will do a CT scan after the 4th to get a view of what has really changed in relation to the cancer in my body.

I am heading off to the agency shortly and will be there in th ebig comfy chair until 1:30 or so, if you are in the 'hood and want to chat feel free to drop in.

I will write you when I return...

A normal weekend...

It was a pretty good weekend, feeling good and getting back to the normal weekend activities.  Did some work around the house, there are a few finishing items that need to get done so that we can finally call our three year old renos finished.

I did my first real trainer ride on Sunday and that felt really good!  I went for a bit of a jog with the neighbours son.  He has been asking to go for a run since he did the Terry Fox run last spring so we did a few laps of the local track and had a sprint finish; I think he just nudged me at the line...

We did manage to get a bit of relaxing in during the afternoon on Sunday so as I said a pretty good back to normal weekend.

Less than a week before Cycle 3

Since I wrote last all has been going well, still feeling good and even alert for the remainder of the week.  I have decided not to run during treatment any longer as the weather is cold (for here) and damp (for anywhere) and I don't want to risk catching a cold.  I have instead decided to cycle on my trainer a few times a week to get in shape for my hopeful participation in the Challenge Pentciton race this August.  My previous 3 iron distance races tell me to focus on the bike so I figure I could use the training there more than the run and besides it is warmer in the house.  I did my first ride today and am feeling really good about it, I will stick to the same sort of idea as I had for my running; two shorter rides and one longer ride each week depending on how I am feeling. 

I am feeling good and all continues to go according to the plan, even my hair has decided to fall out some more after a week or so of very little fall-out. Just like after cycle 1 it started two and a half weeks into the cycle, at least now that it is so short I don't see it laying on the floor and I can finish my shower before the drain clogs up.

Ooops my bad

I do apologize for the lapse in entering here; it was a bit of a week and time just got passed me.

In cycle 1 I had some physical side-effects that I don't need to re-visit but those did not occur at all during cycle 2, good news.  On cycle 1 the effects of the Prednisone faded fairly quickly and I was back to normal shortly after I stopped taking the medication; not so for cycle 2.  I found that the entire week was spent on edge with lack of focus and a bit tired, I was just off all week.  In fact it wasn't until Saturday that I felt normal at all, and after only a little physical work around the house I was pretty much done for the day and had to cancel plans with friends in order to recoup.  Sunday was better and I felt 100% as I took Lori out to the first of eight races in our local running race series, She placed in the top 10 for her age group, hit her target pace and had a good-time doing it so it was a very good day, we had a bite to eat relaxed for a bit and headed over to a friends to celebrate their son's big adventure.  I was able to make it through the evening feeling good.

Today was a good day of working from home and I felt like I was back to being myself and able to hold a conversation without a bunch of pauses while I tried to figure out what should come next, a big improvement over last week.

Thanks for continuing to follow my writing and thanks to those who came by for chats, discussions and coffee; always appreciate the thoughts.

'til next time...

Cycle 2 Day 5

All done with meds for a couple of weeks!  Today was pretty good, I felt well enough to go to the office for a few hours and have a conversation with work mates as well as touch base with my boss, spent the afternoon catching-up on my email and other work items.

This cycle of treatment did not bother my sinuses at all and my mouth and jaw were fine as well!  I did find that the steroids had more impact on me this time around, that may be due to the additional given during IV or just a build-up in my system or it could just be from???  Not a real big concern for me at this moment but I will ask the doc's and nurses if there is something that can be done to lessen this.

I have survived cycle 2!!

Cycle 2 Day 4

Today was a much better day!  Not nearly as shaky and was able to get a few things done around the house today, but no run.  Perhaps later in the week I'll get out for a short run; I just don't feel up to it during the treatment days as I have a hard time focusing on things.

Cycle 2 Day 3

Well, today was not a great day.  I woke up after a good nights sleep quite on edge and anxious feeling.  This feeling did not get better after I took the Prednisone and intensified through the morning.  I still have not had any nausea to speak of and Lori and I did made it out for a great lunch date with good friends.

I spent the majority of the day laying down trying to relax and am feeling pretty good now.  I have just put a roast in the oven and soon we will be eating a very nice dinner.

So even my bad days are going pretty well.

Here's hoping that tomorrow is a better day.

Thanks for reading

Cycle 2 Day 2

Well I am feeling better today and much more on the ball than after the treatment yesterday.

I had all four meds yesterday over a 4 hour period.  I t was a bit different this time as my system was better able to cope with the treatment; although, they did add a couple of twists to the mix in that they doubled up on the Diphenhydramine (antihistamine) and put that through the IV rather than orally they also added Cortisone through IV to help with the immune response to the Rituximab.  This approach seemed to work just fine as I did not have any reaction to the meds at all, but it sure made staying awake a huge challenge!

I managed to have a short nap in the afternoon and still get a fair sleep last night.  I have been drinking lots of fluids to make it easier on my kidneys and liver, my appetite has settled down since yesterday as I pretty much cleaned out the fridge (must be those steroids).  I am now on day 2 of 5 of the Prednisone and all is going well.

I am feeling pretty good today although like in the first cycle my face is warm and flushed, i am just taking it easy and laying about the house.

Talk at you tomorrow.

Cycle 2 Day 1

I have been back for a few hours now but very drowsy and tired from the meds.  I do not have to go in tomorrow as they gave me all of the IVs today, I get to rest, recover and let the meds do their work.

I will write again later but wanted you all to know I am good...

thanks to those who dropped in to say hello at the agency!

Back from appointments

Well, I had the blood work done, checked in with the nurse and then saw the onc; all is well and likely have a single day of IV this cycle rather than two days of it.  They are going to reduce the Vincristine to 75% due to the numbness in my fingers.

Not much to report but no bad news...

Happy New Year!

  We celebrated the previous and toasted to the new, ate some lobster and shared a few stories with friends.  Took down the lights and packed the decorations up for another year then relaxed.

Now we are back to our regular routine, I have a couple of appointments today and another blood test.  I first see the nurse then the onc, likely to get weight taken and to see how I fared with the first treatment and determine the plan for the next cycle which starts tomorrow.  I will of course let you know what goes on today and what the plan is for tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

Sunday longer run

Well I was feeling aerodynamic today as I headed out for a 60 minute run with Lori.  Everything went well and no toque required.  Still feeling good and getting ready for the start of the New Year and the beginning of cycle #2.

Houston we have Velcro...

Well today did not go exactly as planned.  The drain in the shower was not working very well this morning as I noticed water in the bottom of the tub only to discover the drain screen blocked by what appeared to be hair; my hair!  when brushing, it continued to fall out and my brush did indeed look like road-kill so I decided rather than living in denial it was time for a trim.  Long story short I now have Velcro in place of my hair.

Before...

 

After...

 

 

 

I have never had short hair let alone the Velcro look and feel so it is a bit different for me, and also a bit chilly.  I guess I will need to get a hat or toughen up a bit.

 

Well that is the news for the day, and a big hug of thanks to Penni for my new doo.

 

 

 



 





Saturday AM

Well, I continue to feel good.  Planning on doing a few little projects around the house today and will head out for a longer (60 minute) run tomorrow AM, let me know if you want to join me.  Chat to you all tomorrow after the run.

Later that same day

Well, it is now later in the day and I am feeling good with no ill effects from the quicker run this morning.  I will take a couple of days from running but I think I will be OK with two 30 minute and one longer run in a week, if weather is bad I will hit the trainer.

The day after boxing day

Well, we took the day off yesterday.  We make it a point not to go shopping on boxing day so we spent the day cleaning up from Christmas and enjoying ourselves by listening to music practising our bass and guitar and even watched a couple of movies, very relaxing day.

We are both back to work today and headed out for an early AM run, Lori having an medium long run and I just wanted to see how I was doing.  I am feeling great these past few days and wanted to see if I could manage any sort of speed.  I set out for a quick 5K warming up for the first K and cooling down for the last.  I tried to maintain an even sub 4:30/km pace for the middle three K, I was sub 4:30 but not an even pace, I am out of practice but know that it will all come back.  It was tough to keep the pace up for the last bit but I managed, I'll see how I feel throughout the day as it has been a while since I pushed my heart-rate this much even for this short a period.  The run felt good and I am exhilarated from being able to run anything close to a 4:30.

I have some preliminary test results back from both the MRI and my blood-work.  The MRI report came back mostly normal and I will need the doctors to translate the report details before I post anything about it here; but, mostly normal is very good.  Blood work I can share and it is exciting for me to share as I believe it is the best indication on how I am responding to the treatments, all blood count markers are in the normal (for a regular person) range except for my Lymphocytes which are still a bit low.  My platelets are back in the normal range where they have not been since I was diagnosed and prior to treatment I was cautioned that I may need a platelet transfusion because they were so low.  Some very positive results to carry me through to the New Year and my next appointments with the nurse and oncologist prior to the second cycle starting.

Enjoy the day and I'll post later on to let you know how I am feeling after the run but I don't imagine it will be anything but positive.