Penultimate Treatment

#5 - only one more to go after this. I am still feeling a bit shaky and tired (after all, they moved up the date by two days - two full days of progress in recovering). First, a port draw. Last time that was tricky, and proved to be difficult again this time, requiring six men and a monkey plus every contortion under the sun, but we finally got blood to draw.

Then a chat with the doctor. Things look good. Blood work is fine. She is consulting with a number of specialists to get to the bottom of the iodine allergy question. My eyelashes and eyebrows are completely gone, but she reassures me they will grow back.

We discuss the next phase of treatment. After round 6, I get a four week hiatus with minimal testing.Then if deemed acceptable, a test run of the Bexxar and couple weeks of tracing the progress of the test run. Then the full blown Bexxar, followed by recovery and testing. We are talking September rest and then treatment well into October.

I am tired, not moving a lot at home. She decides I should see a physical therapist, see if we can keep the muscle tone up and not lose ground. I mention the trouble with port draws, and she prescribes a treatment to clear out any clediment that might be impeding progress.

She takes excellent care of me. For one thing she is extremely knowledgeable. For another, she not only listens carefully to my concerns, she takes them seriously and does something about them. I am getting great care.

On to the treatment. First the port treatment that takes a full hour. Thank God it works. Blood is now flowing easily and the chemo can proceed. With no Rituxan, the six hour stuff, I also don't have to take as many pretreatment drugs. Less groggy, but the chemo hits a bit harder. I am very wiped out afterwards.

But overall, a five hour day is way better than a nine hour day. Even though I am tired, its all over but the recovery weeks. Yeah! One more down, only one to go.