C03D21: 6.3 km in a day, 63 km in a week.

Cycle #3 is coming to an end, and I think so far this is the cycle with the best general condition — of me, that is. Not sure where wbc and rbc and all those good things are (we’ll see tomorrow), but lookie here:

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This is from my Endomondo stats page. You can clearly see the improvement: 42.23 km in the first cycle (consisting only of walking, that’s the purple bar there), 63.59 km in the second (did some cycling and running there as well as the walks), and 128.23 in the third — with some running and a lot of cycling over the walks. Seems some kind of exponential function, so supposedly I should do around 350 km in cycle #4… Geez, what have I gotten myself into.

By the way, the last 6.3 km was actually me playing tourist with my mom in Amsterdam (finally! it only took 8 months):

 

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You can see the rest of the photos here. Also see the tendencies in the second cycle: Fateful Saturday took its toll.

I am wondering what metrics should I measure. Once the bike is in use, kms are not that relevant, and calories I don’t give a shit about; after all, I am trying to gain weight here. (And with success: steroids plus workouts are my friends.) I was thinking of coolories… as in “running 4 km is cooler than cycling 10”. Can someone let Endomondo know?

Anyway, just wanted to articulate that in this cycle, I felt as if I could start cycle #4 on the second week already, and that since the beginning of my chemo, this cycle has been the best in terms of feels. That’s a good thing, right?

C03D16 quick update.

A very quick and dry update on c03: I stopped G-CSF after 3 days (as I felt some bone pain already), this resulted in 6.8/60/2 figures (Hb/Tr/Lk, respectively) on Monday’s blood test. First, this red blood count is the best I had since March (yay), second my platelets are down so I need to be careful with bruises as I found out hitting a box with my leg and getting a big black bruise (boo), third, wbc could be higher so I did another shot on c03d15 (yesterday). This should be OK: I didn’t have severe bone pain (and hopefully won’t get any either), and wbc should be up in the normals by tomorrow. (Judging from the feels, it might be there already.)

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Got some funny allergic reaction, swollen eyelids for a change. Quite strong earlier, I can see fine now.

Weight status: 83.5 kg.

C03D10 status – cycle 3 almost done (and some stats geekery.)

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Can it be so, that I haven’t posted stuff for more than a cycle? Naughty hobby blogger!

First of all, an executive summary, to answer the most frequent questions on status of my treatment:

  • I am in the middle of cycle 3, out of 8 cycles — so 5 rounds left
  • I am generally fine: side effects are mild and manageable (apart from some not-so-mild), I’m doing daily workouts, and doing some work (not very much)
  • I am anemic (not enough red blood cells), but my body is getting used to it, and as a result…
  • …I continue doing my daily workouts (running/cycling/walking) — check on Endomondo (accessible only to Endo friends), InstagramFacebook, or my related publicGoogle Photos Collection
  • There will be a big checkup with PET/MR, with lung and heart checks after cycle 4 (in about a month’s time); doctors will be able to comment on treatment progress then, but it is highly expected I’ll have to do the full 8 cycles to be on the safe side, regardless of the results
  • My spirit is high, and I am mostly in a good mood (as Juli can attest), and I receive tons (thanks!) of support from family/friends/colleagues
  • Wife and kids are doing great too: even with the side effects I am in much better condition compared to the 2 months of 40 degree fever back in Feb/Apr

OK then, on with the blog!

I have finished the IV part (or hospital part, call it whatever) of cycle #3 — GCSF part (you know: shooting yourself in the leg every day) is in progress. This time I’m doing 4 shots: Mon-Tue-Wed-Fri (so no Thu); hopefully this will help reduce (dare I say: avoid) the bone pain.

Still on the technical front, my blood results from the last couple of weeks are good surfing ground: from C02D08 onwards my red blood count was increasing steadily (besides WBC) all the way up to 6,5, thrombocytes to 331 (to pretty much normal values) — until this Monday when it dropped back to 5,3 and 142, respectively. WBC is down to 2,3. Not particularly good results, but from what I understand this fluctuation is normal after the IV part, and with the treatment in general: after all, chemo affects quickly generated cells, like blood cells (and hair, and skin, etc.) “Like the Assyrian empire”, to quote a classic… We’ll see how they go up again on my “rest week”.

More importantly, I decided to get a blood transfusion with the 5,3 rbc value, it is way too low, and for the days before the blood check I had felt some fatigue, a good sign of anemia — probably a good idea to get it over with so I have a good 2 weeks before the next round with a good energy level.

Even more importantly (and to move from medical jargon to to stats we all hold so dearly)), this didn’t stop me from doing my little workouts — typically 5+ km daily walks, or around 2 km runs, or, e.g., a 14km bike run on the day of the 5,3 rbc value. The panorama above the post is actually from that trip to Durgerdam. Absolutely lovely place with old wooden houses, boats (duh), and around 430 inhabitants. (Something I hadn’t noticed is on the left side you can see part of Juli’s bike and on the right side a part of Juli. Could just crop it to clean it up… but won’t.)

The key point is still: do something every day. If that doesn’t work out, then as frequently as possible. And despite the anemia, last week (22th Jun – 28th Jun) was a pretty solid week:

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(This week may be somewhat better even, pending the GCSF effects. Also, I’m counting kilometres; at this stage I don’t care about calories you understand.)

In fact, last time I did this much was in November last year, a yet fully healthy month (well, supposedly.)

So to finish off on the good, sporty tone, and instead of a picture of a potato, here is us, wife and yours truly, on our bike trip:

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