I thought I'd start a new thread for updates on my cancer treatments and whatever else is going on, since the bad news thread title is misleading now.
My last treatment went better than the previous two and my chest wound is still closed up, which is a good thing. My arm is getting slightly stronger and I hope to resume lifting dumbbells next week. I need to build up my strength again, because I am going back to Denmark in May and I am extremely pumped about that! I'd like to be able to schlepp my own checked bag and not have someone else lifting it for me.
It's going to be a fabulous trip, 6 weeks and a couple of days for me. My brother is going along as well as my friends Chipp and Rod. Chipp is staying close to 3 weeks and has not gone with me over there since 2006 so he is also very pumped to be going. It will be Rod's first trip and he will be there for 2 weeks. I will get to be a tour guide. Also, I am throwing a party in my favorite pub of all, the wonderful, ever-magnificent Irish House in Aalborg on May 7th. The owner and I are friends and he will give me a little discount. We'll have Irish stew and brews in the cellar and I hope to have around 25 family and friends there. I might bill it as the "Fu** Cancer Party." A few months back, I was not sure I'd ever be able to go over to Denmark again or if I'd even be alive, but the cancer hasn't gotten me yet. I'm doing a number on it, instead.
Some other cool things I plan to do when I am back in my ancestral lands include a wine tasting in a castle, touring another castle and the northernmost manor home in the country, and visiting Skagen, the top of Denmark, where you can stand on a little patch of beach and have one foot in one sea and one in another. They also have a brewpub up there I am wanting to check out. I will start and end my trip in Aalborg and spend 5 weeks in an apartment I rent that is very close to the beach. I can hardly wait for May 4th to roll around! [Reply]
Well, there still is the matter of me not being advised to lift over 10 lbs. until about October 1st, but I am fine with that. Most of the firewood I needed to take the chainsaw to is done. I have a lot that I am going to need a log splitter to handle, though. I have two options for that, and October was when I was planning to do it anyway. It's hot, sweaty work and cool fall days are best for that sort of thing. [Reply]
I was on three kinds at once: Avastin, oxaliplatin, and 5-FU, but the doc took me off of the oxaplilatin back in either February or March since it was causing me to have neuropathy, and I still have it, so that could be permanent. I feel like my fingertips are being pinched lightly and I always feel like I have sand in my socks even if I am bare footed. I may be on the avastin and 5-FU again once treatments resume on Sept. 1st, but the doc was concerned about the neuropathy so there could be a change or addition to the plan because of it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
I was on three kinds at once: Avastin, oxaliplatin, and 5-FU, but the doc took me off of the oxaplilatin back in either February or March since it was causing me to have neuropathy, and I still have it, so that could be permanent. I feel like my fingertips are being pinched lightly and I always feel like I have sand in my socks even if I am bare footed. I may be on the avastin and 5-FU again once treatments resume on Sept. 1st, but the doc was concerned about the neuropathy so there could be a change or addition to the plan because of it.
If it is not one thing, it's another. Sheesh! [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
I was on three kinds at once: Avastin, oxaliplatin, and 5-FU, but the doc took me off of the oxaplilatin back in either February or March since it was causing me to have neuropathy, and I still have it, so that could be permanent. I feel like my fingertips are being pinched lightly and I always feel like I have sand in my socks even if I am bare footed. I may be on the avastin and 5-FU again once treatments resume on Sept. 1st, but the doc was concerned about the neuropathy so there could be a change or addition to the plan because of it.
Thanks for the info. I was informed Tuesday I'd probably be getting Avastin this time. I had a pill last time, Temodar. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
I was on three kinds at once: Avastin, oxaliplatin, and 5-FU, but the doc took me off of the oxaplilatin back in either February or March since it was causing me to have neuropathy, and I still have it, so that could be permanent. I feel like my fingertips are being pinched lightly and I always feel like I have sand in my socks even if I am bare footed. I may be on the avastin and 5-FU again once treatments resume on Sept. 1st, but the doc was concerned about the neuropathy so there could be a change or addition to the plan because of it.
They gave you five FUs?? Well that's just a rude thing to say to somebody not at their best! :-):-):-):-)
Stay strong my friend, and give them a few FUs right back!
Thanks and I have thought the same about the 5-FU many times. That one is the kind that is administered via a pump over 2 days, so I have that thing hooked up to me and carry it around in a fanny pack. I don't like having a needle stuck in my chest for two days and I have to be very careful with the tubes and pump. But it sure beats the alternative which would be staying in the hospital for 2 days watching an IV slowly drip. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
Thanks and I have thought the same about the 5-FU many times. That one is the kind that is administered via a pump over 2 days, so I have that thing hooked up to me and carry it around in a fanny pack. I don't like having a needle stuck in my chest for two days and I have to be very careful with the tubes and pump. But it sure beats the alternative which would be staying in the hospital for 2 days watching an IV slowly drip.
The good thing about 5FU is that it doesn't generally cause the severe side effects that other chemotherapies do. And portable pumps are far better than a 2 day stay in the hospital. [Reply]
