July 2015 – Back in Shape

Hb +1.5.

Just received my 900 ml of new blood today. This should bounce my Hb count to healthy levels, +.5 count per pack as I just learned.

Very funny feeling this, when your brain, operating on backup power for the better half (actually, most) of the past week, suddenly starts up and starts processing stuff other than what to eat, get off the couch and go shower, and let’s watch Tropic Thunder and Graham Norton Show.

And now suddenly I want to

go cycling (did it the past days, but at the end I was dragging myself a bit)
go take photos
do work
go sit in a cafe

and stuff.

So to put it in another way, at first I was all like

and

But then I

‘d, and now I’m like

So there. And now: walk!

(That red pic by the way is from Terminator, in case you were wondering. The famous “aux batt” scene, anyone?)

C04D10: fun with the new side effect, and D11 preparations.

My new fun side effect goes by the name Polyneuropathy:

Polyneuropathy or symmetrical polyneuropathy (poly- + neuro- + -pathy) is damage or disease affecting peripheral nerves (peripheral neuropathy) in roughly the same areas on both sides of the body, featuring weakness, numbness, pins-and-needles, and burning pain.

What it comes down to in my case is numbness in my fingertips, more annoying than a real problem. For now, there is nothing to do, this is chemo side effect. Doctor’s advice for now is keeping our eyes open and if it’s getting worse (e.g. I become unable to type or use my phone), dosage will be reduced for the remaining rounds.

D11: tomorrow I’ll have a long day. Monday’s results showed anaemia again (C04D08 blood screen: Hb 6.1, Tr 105, Lk 2), so I’m getting blood. I’m doing my normal workouts, but have trouble doing stuff that requires brain, or more precisely: that requires my brain to require oxygen, I guess. I suspect this blogpost is ultra basic too, but I’ll go with the basics happily for now. Like “we watched Tropic Thunder yesterday” basic.

Okay, so here’s the schedule for tomorrow:

I start at the Dagbehandeling at 8:30 (ouch), to get myself cyborg’d up (okay, I’ll get a branula for the day), and to do the cross check for blood type (fun fact: they always have to do this before blood transfusion, even if your blood type is obviously known).
Then over to CT – this is exciting on its own merit (first time since the start of the treatment to actually see how much progress I’ve made), but I’ll only get results on Monday. CT starts at 10:00 (for thorax; and 10:07 for abdomen), no eating beforehand (boo).
After CT, I’ll get to eat something (yay), and then head back to Dagbehandeling, where 3 packs of blood will be waiting for me. Blood transfusion takes 4.5 hours plus tax.

So I’ll basically spend my day at the hospital tomorrow (not thrilled), and there is a chance I’ll have some bone pain starting too (G-CSF week, remember?), but on the other hand, will come back with new blood, and I suspect (from experience) I’ll be in high mode on Friday.

Oh, and: next week we are off to Leidschendam, for a mini holid(y)ay!

Another quick update.

I’m 85.9 kg! Obviously big part is prednisolone (big part: maybe 3 kg), but I don’t feel “chubby”, as you would. I feel muscular.

Smokin’!

C04D01 status: some good news, and some more good news.

First off, C04D01 blood results, my feelings were right about me being in a good state: Hb (red blood cells) 7.4; Tr (platelets): 256; Lk (white blood cells): 5.5. The blood screen of a healthy person! Wbc probably something to do with the G-CSF I shot last Monday (but still good to know I can get it up to a normal value without too much pain), red blood cells and platelets increased on their own significantly during rest week. Yay!

Other piece of good news: I will only have 6 cycles, not 8. Not sure where this comes from (or rather: how could we misunderstand 6 for 8), but now it’s confirmed by two doctors, so I decided to believe it. Yay!

I’ll also have a CT sometime next week (tbc next Monday), to see (or rather: not see) my tumors.

This is how we roll in C04.

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:

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):

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?