My last chemotherapy was 15 days ago. Eleven days ago I finished the high dose steroids (figure 1) which for me was probably the worst part of the treatment. I am starting to feel more energetic and my stomach feels pretty good. Monday I had a colonoscopy because the lymphoma was initially diagnosed in my …
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Ringing the finished-with-chemo bell
Yesterday, July 8th, I had the last of 6 chemo infusions. It took 6 hours, again, but I have a bit of a cold so I slept through some of it which was kind of nice. Now I am doing the steroid part of the cycle. I don’t think I will feel like I am …
Chemotherapy infusion five, now also done.
Thursday I had the fifth chemotherapy infusion. It still took all day, from 8:30 to 3:30, because they had to wait to get the go-ahead from the oncologist becuase I had a low blood concentration of neutrophils which are a type of white blood cells that the chemo drugs kill off. Supposedly they decline …
Continue reading “Chemotherapy infusion five, now also done.”
Infusion four: done
Other than the fact that I start and end up looking nearly normal, at least on the outside, this panorama doesn’t do as good a job as the last one did at depicting the last three week chemotherapy cycle. But it is satisfying to see the dandelions have nearly all progressed from flowers to seeds. …
Lymph nodes looking good
This is a short update for those you wondering about the outcome of the CT and PET scans I had yesterday, at almost the halfway point of the chemotherapy treatment. I had an appointment with the oncologist, Dr. Bael, this afternoon. He showed me the images from before treatment started and from yesterday. There is …
Traveling through space and time (by Saskya)
When Andy showed me this spring dandelion panorama I interpreted it in a related but different way than he did (here is how he saw it, which includes an explanation of how he took the photo). I think it’s a representation of my last 21 day chemotherapy cycle. On the left is me looking intact …
Continue reading “Traveling through space and time (by Saskya)”
Traveling through space and time (by Andy)
My friend Paul Strominger discovered that the panorama feature of his iPhone gives funny effects if there is a moving object in view. For example if, while panning from left to right, a car drives to the right faster than the pan then, in the picture, the car comes out backwards. Somehow this picture of …
Continue reading “Traveling through space and time (by Andy)”
Positive and negative side effects of chemotherapy
After the last chemotherapy the first five days of prednisone were annoying, and I was vaguely nauseous for about 10 days. I have been feeling pretty well for the last week, which I guess means that it is almost time for the next chemotherapy infusion. That will happen this coming Thursday. Until then I plan …
Continue reading “Positive and negative side effects of chemotherapy”
Another hair cut and the second round of chemotherapy
Over the weekend my hair was falling out all over the house, alarming me and the other members of the household. Also my scalp hurt as if the hairs moving around, or even their weight, irritated their dying follicles. So Tuesday morning I got Andy to help me shave my head. It feels very strange, …
Continue reading “Another hair cut and the second round of chemotherapy”
Prognosis (by Andy)
Andy here. Doctors generally seem to avoid telling you statistical chances of this and that, even though all of their treatments are based on analysis of such statistics. Here are some things doctors told us. The 4 months of R-CHOP chemotherapy have about a 70% chance of being successful in that, at the end of …