Half way through

Fifty percent of the chemo treatments are now behind me! On December 14th, I will get my last interleukin injection and be done with chemotherapy.
This has been another tough round. I have been exhausted throughout, the nausea has been about the same as during the first two rounds and the injection reactions continue. Just to add a little fun to the pot, this round has included pretty intense headaches. What a nice touch!
But this is big picture day, I am halfway done. On Friday December 14th I am buying the first round. Screw it if I get sick, chemo will be done. Anyone who wants to join me is welcome.

Day 2

Into the second day and I am not sure how to classify it so far. I am green around the gills, but I am still able to force food done, so I guess that is a positive things. This round has really wiped me out, I slept 11 hours last night and right after chemo today, I laid down for another 6 hours. I could easily go to sleep right now, but I am worried that this may screw up my sleep schedule. My nausea medicine at home just isn't strong enough to overcome. At least I am not suffering any allergic reaction yet to the injections. Two more injections and then I am through with this stuff.

Round 3

Today was a mixed bag. On a positive note, the chest x-ray came back clear, which is a very good thing. I asked Dr. Miller about the reaction to the interleukin injections and he said that all they can really do is to cut back on the amount in the injections, which seems a little self defeating to me. I will just see how this round goes. He also said that the interleukin injections can cause the severe muscle weakness that I am experiencing, which is really distressing. Again, I will just have to see how this round plays out.
I had a reaction to the chemotherapy today, my blood pressure dropped way down. I noticed that I got feeling really light headed and called the nurse who discovered my low blood pressure. They made me stay around an hour after chemo, pumping fluids in me until my blood pressure rebounded. I was concerned that I wasn't going to be able to drive myself home safely and I wasn't sure how I was going to handle that one.
I am starting to feel bad, I am sure that I hear my recliner calling. More later.

And the beat goes on

Five days until my next round of chemo, boy am I getting excited. I am going in for a chest x-ray in the morning, apparently recurrent melanoma frequently shows up in the lungs first. They will alternate every three months between chest x-rays and PET scans for the next three years and then go to six month scans.
I still feel real good all in all. My strength is coming back, that is a very good thing. I still have a couple of knots on my stomach where I got my injections last time, it will be interesting to see what they do to combat the possible allergic reaction this time. If the reactions to the shot keep getting worse each round, that would be very worrisome.
I finally discovered something positive about the sleeve: it feels so good when you take it off! In all fairness to the cussed thing, it does help. I only wear it to work and last weekend on the camping trip my arm swelled up on me from normal work around camp without wearing the sleeve.
I would rather be fishing or camping than doing chemotherapy next week!

Life's little smiles

This post doesn't have beans to do with melanoma, but it was way too cool not to share. Rita and I went to Graeter's ice cream last night. There was a little boy, two or three years old, sitting by himself on the only free bench. Rita and I sat down on the bench with him and his mom called him over to their bench, but he just wanted to jabber at us, it was a riot. He had a Bass Pro Shops hat on and when I complemented him on his hat that opened the flood gates. Then his big sister, Brooklyn (he was Ethan) plopped her sweet self right beside me and started talking my ear off. She is six and the two of them battled for our attention for the next ten minutes. Brooklyn (not Brook as she made a point of telling us) is in the process of being adopted and told us their whole family story. She even raced over to her dad so she could bring their little brother over in the stroller. Their mom wandered over and stood there listening to the whole exchange, you just couldn't help laughing at their youthful enthusiasm. As they were walking away to go home with their dad, Ethan would stop every five feet and yell 'goodbye' at us. It was really one of the neatest experiences that I have ever had.

A big scare

I had a major scare thrown into me over the last couple of weeks: my strength was going away. I first noticed it when I had to bear down to open a bottle of water, then I could barely muster the strength to start my outboard at the Nolin Lake trip. The whole issue came to a head last Sunday when I went belly boating with my family. There was a light wind blowing and I literally didn't have enough strength to kick my belly boat into the wind. I kicked as hard as I could and couldn't move the belly boat. I had to get out and fish from shore. Then on Monday, my legs ached from the effort the previous day. I was so depressed that I couldn't bear it, if chemotherapy was causing this much muscle weakness after only two rounds, how in the world could I possibly endure four more rounds? This was truly one of the lowest points in my whole battle so far. I was seriously considering discontinuing chemotherapy.
Monday evening, I remembered that my family doctor had just put me on a new medication two weeks earlier. I Googled up the medication and one of the potential side affects was severe muscle weakness. "One of the main side effects of the drug Tricor, is a muscle-wasting disease called rhabdomyolysis." I immediately stopped taking the drug and called my family doctor on Tuesday (who suggested that perhaps I should discontinue the medication). My strength seems to be coming back now, at least it isn't getting any worse.
I hate drugs, even if they are legally prescribed.