Oops..

Well I guess it had to happen at least once.. I missed a doctors appointment! For starters it was on a Monday morning, and secondly it wasn't really related to the cancer. So it was doomed to fail. I was going to check up on some skin rashes at the dermatologist to see if they were somehow related to the medicine I'm using but apparently it wasn't that important to me.. I did notice that I had the appointment though but a few hours late. So I called them and played my dumbass-card along with some exceptionally bad excuses and got another appointment for the week after (3/9). On Monday morning! Funny how they seem to have plenty of free timeslots for that time of the week, eh?

I also got to test my cardio-endurance the same week (31/8) when I took a trip to the Nagu forests to look for mushrooms. Usually you don't have to walk that far for a sufficient amount of shrooms to make you satisfied but I guess the strange weather this summer has produced a really shitty shroom-season. We walked around for about 1h20min in rough terrain and I almost had a friggin' heart attack! Sure we found a little something to put in a stew but it wasn't really worth the effort. Jumping Jesus I was exhausted! I could barely walk for two days.. I guess the chemo does have some other negative effects that you don't notice before pushing yourself physically. Anyway, aside from a disappointing amount of forest-loot I got a tick as well. All I need now is a case of Lyme Disease or TBE.

Chemo 5 of 6 and results time!

So one week went by and I finally got to know something about how the tumor is doing in there among all the toxins inside me. Well, it's not good news.. For the tumor!! =) It's down to 5x6cm in size now and has completely withdrawn from covering my left lung. Good old CHOP-R is kicking ass and taking names. Anyway, I'm not gonna start jumpin up and down (in risk of breaking the floor) yet, I'll save it for when the whole thing is dead and gone! After about a month after the 6th treatment I'm gonna go all readioactiveman again and go for a PET-scan where it will be decided how much radiation therapy is needed to blast the rest of the tumor out. Could be 4-6 weeks EVERY friggin' day (working day) for a whopping 1-2min at the time so I'm not looking forward to that. But all means are good means if I get completely cured!

I don't have much to add about the same old boring chemo-visits. I'm back to my good old room with my very capable and nice nurse, so things are running smoothly. They halved my dosage of vincristine so that I might get rid of the numbness in my fingers, hopefully that'll work. I was told (now!) that usually patients stop having finger symptoms between treatments, I've had them for almost two months now. So yeah, time to cut the dose! In worst cases it can be permanent! Apparently the thin nerves at the fingertops can just wither away and never return if you get too much Oncovin. But that's a minor problem. Still feeling good, no other disturbing symptoms and livin' la vida loca. (And for some reason gaining a lot of weight recently.. Typical!) 

Edit (24/7): Whaddaya know.. My fingers are much better now! =)

Chemo 4 of 6 and CT-scan!!

Well well, one more intravenous toxindump completed (2/8) and hopefully only two left?! The results of the CT (14/8) will determine if the 6x CHOP-R will be enough. And no, I don't have the results yet. As usual I'll have to walk around on nails and wait for it for a week or so. At least they gave me a leaded cup to protect what's left of my balls this time. Considering it's my third body scan it's kind of strange this is the first time I saw one of those. Also this time I didn't have to go all radioactive, it was a basic CT-scan, not a PET-scan.

Apparently my veins went missig again (1/8) at my previous lab visit. She changed arms three times to find a suitable candidate and yet again she had to go digging around with the needle to get blood. Even that failed so she made another hole next to it until she finally struck oil. I'm getting so used to needle-fails by now I pretty much laughed at the whole procedure. The important thing is that my blood, liver and kindney values are still back to normal every three weeks! So I'm really kicking ass with that! (4-0 Me!)

Since pretty much the entire hospital were on vacation I had my chemo down in the cellar in the T-hospital this time. I thought I would only get a chair and sit in a circle with a bunch of old people knitting and doing crosswords, but as usual I got my own room with TV and adjustable bed (while the old people sat out in the hall). I guess they really do feel sorry for young cancer patients? This time I got cookies too! Loots of cookies!! =)

Anywhoo, I'll post some results and stuff as soon as I know more!