The Break after Round One: A Retrospective (Blood Hurts)

Today I started my second round of CHOEP so I thought this would be a good opportunity to reminisce about the break after the first round. And since I´m a scientist I couldn´t resist but make a nifty diagram *nerd alert*!

About the interesting parts of my week I have already written in the past threads (well concering my sickness, the rest is private mind you ;)). However, you may have noticed the drop in the Feeling curve on the Easter holidays (when else?!). I labeled it "Bloodbuilding" and you also may think "Well, bloodbuilding sounds good and healthy!". No, no it´s not. Well maybe healthy but for suuure not good. At least for the patient. Lemme explain.

My blood values have been horrible especially the erythrocytes, hemoglobin, thrombocytes and LDH. For all the non-medical readers- these are all relevant values for the quantity of blood and for the blood building (the alert reader of my blog may remember that I´m anemic and needed blood infusions twice. Of course you all knew that ;)). I think the ONLY parameter that was okay were my leukocytes which are very important for the immune system. But we fixed that anomaly with chemo *pheeew* Since we like me having a good immune system I get one leukocyte shot with every chemo round (called Neulasta). At this point I would like to cite directly from the patient information leaflet of this wonderful medicine (comments in red):

"Like all medicines, this medicine can cause side effects, although not everybody gets them (as if!).

Very common side effects (may affect more than 1 in 10 people):

• bone pain. Your doctor will tell you what you can take to ease the bone pain. (check. Doctor: "Take these painkillers for light to medium pain you get without prescription in the pharmacy" Oh well, let´s guess how THAT worked out for me!?)
• nausea and headaches (check, check but who knows anymore from which meds I get these symptoms).

Common side effects (may affect up to 1 in 10 people):

• pain at the site of injection (check, and a wonderful addition for my collection of thrombocyte injection bruises!).
• general aches and pains in the joints and muscles (check. Huh, maybe that´s where my sore muscles came from?!).
• some changes may occur in your blood, but these will be detected by routine blood tests. Your white blood cell count may become high for a short period of time. Your platelet count may become low which might result in bruising  (check, my white blood cells have been skyrocketting today in the blood test. But I thought that was the purpose of this injecton?! You know, this being a leukocyte shot? No? Anyone wants to enlighten me? I know some medical doctors are reading this blog! Please step forth and explain! ;))."

So now you know, building blood hurts. A looot. Taking this and adding the usual chemo side effects (numb fingertips, trembling hands, no sleep) and losing your hair you can imagine why there´s a drop in the curve.

But still, overall the first complete round one has been alright for me. So let´s wait and see what round two has in store for us!

Mountain Med is getting bigger every week!

There are many more fun side effects to discover! More sleepless nights (Bets are still open after how many days of no sleep I turn into Godzilla)! How often can my phone survive being dropped out of my numb and trembling hands (do you know how f***ing hard it is to navigate a TOUCH screen with no feeling in the fingertips and shaking hands?? Every message I write is hard work dammit, I hope you appreciate that! ;))? When will Mountain Med have grown high enough to actually be acknowledged a mountain (soon, I promise!)?

So stay tuned if you just cannot wait for an answer to all of these exciting questions! I promise you won´t be disappointed! :)