2nd round of chemo, day 4

The 2nd round of chemo is going smoothly so far. Just like with the first round, I'm starting to notice the side-effects on the 4th day (today). Yesterday I still felt great with just a little bit of fatigue and food tasting strangely, but today's it's really kicked in. My face and hands feel swollen, food tastes really weird, and I'm tired and cranky.

We've scheduled the chemo appointments to be in the morning which is great since it lets us get them out of the way and on with the day.

My parents are all settled in to their new apartment! They are masters at moving from having lived in the military. I bet this is probably the 25th or 30th house they've lived in throughout their life, so they know just what to bring. They came into town the Thursday before last, started looking on Friday, and had a great place rented and almost fully furnished by the following Monday. And it's only a mile from here and in the same neighborhood, which is great.

The Naturopathic Oncologist we saw last week (something I haven't blogged about yet), recommended walking every day to help keep the fluids going and all the hormones and internal systems in check, and my dad has been showing up every morning, "like a bad dream", he says, to take us out for a 2-3 mile walk. It's great advice, since even after I was initially diagnosed, it was the one thing that cleared my head and made me feel less depressed. There's nothing like physical exertion to keep your spirits up. After walking we come back for coffee and read the paper. Sometimes the simple things in life are the most rewarding.

Our schedule today looked like this:

• wake up at 6:55am
• meet dad at 7:00am
• walk from 7:00am to 8:00am
• have breakfast and coffee
• chemotherapy appointment from 9:00am to 10:00am
• blood draw appointment (and wait for results) from 10:00am to 11:30am
• shuttle parents back home from 11:30am until 12:00pm
• head off to work from 12:30pm to 6:00pm
• sleep from 6:00pm until 8:00pm
• eat dinner
• play on computer, read email
• bedtime by 11:00pm
  

Now that I'm back on the meds for the chemotherapy (and other recommendations from the naturopath), I'm taking meds about 7 times a day. I have a fancy pill box to keep track of it all :)

• 8am - Dexamethasone (steroids, anti-nausea), Zofran (anti-nausea)
• after breakfast (sesame oil, various multi-vitamins, D-5000, B12, green tea extract)
• after lunch (green tea extract)
• 4pm - Zofran (anti-nausea)
• after dinner (sesame oil, various multi-vitamins, D-5000, B12)
• 8pm - Dexamethasone (steroids, anti-nausea)
• 12am - Zofran (anti-nausea)
  

That's it for tonight. Here are some pictures of my parent's nice pad :)