What A Pain

It's been almost a week now since my first chemo treatment (sorry for the slowness in my update). Fortunately, I didn't have any immediate reaction to the treatment, which consists of the chemo drug Gemcitabine -- often used for pancreatic, lung, and resistant types of Lymphoma.

Now with about a week behind me, I am seeing some side effects. For one, even the slightest warm water touching my skin in certain places feels like acid. The pain is unbearable. I've even been warned that too much contact of hot water can make the skin slough off. So, as you can imagine I'm being careful. But with that being said, that is one of very few side effects.

The main problem: swelling, which seems to be associated with an allergic reaction to pain medication I'm taking. It's either morphine or oxycodone, or both. The swelling in combination with the chemo treatment has made life miserable for almost a week now. My sleep has been little or irregular, there has been lymph fluid oozing in places I don't care to discuss (and believe me, that feels like acid too.) With the swelling, breathing has been very difficult -- I am homebound most of the time and haven't been to work for almost 10 days. Thankfully, I have generous fellow ODOT employees who have been most kind in donating comp time towards my leave.

I do not believe it's just one thing causing my one miserable condition -- it's a combination of things interacting together causing my mysery, and if I could just take out the most irritating variable from the equation, I know I could feel better. Nonetheless, I will say, upon waking up today, I felt better. I am not sure what the difference was, but I've been taking different doses of medication in hopes of relief. It might be helping. Regardless, these are baby steps, but still steps.

I have been fortunate to have my friend Thane around while going through some of this. He hasn't found a place to live yet as a college student, so he is staying here until that happens. This has been a very good thing for me. My friend Michele has also been very instramental in support during my "needy" time. She has gone out of her way to offer support and take care of things when needed. She also is checking up on me all the time to make sure I am alive :-) For that I am very appreciative.

There isn't a lot of good news right now, but I will focus on one positive, and that is I have a lot of support and that there is light at the end of this tunnel. I know this, and I know though it will take time, it won't take forever.

The next chemotherapy treatment is Thursday at 3:45, I will try to give you a much better, timlier, and more positive update as I endure more pain and drugs to save my life.

-LB