Just another Chemo Friday

Today was round two for Chemo, and I couldn't have asked for it to go any better.  After my first chemo treatment I was given a Lidocaine cream that's meant to numb the port when it's accessed.  The first time I tried the Lidocaine, I gave myself 45 minutes for it to absorb into the skin, and it was not enough time because I still felt it burn when the needle went in.  This morning I decided to give myself a good hour and a half and to my surprise, I felt NOTHING.  Absolutely nothing.  It was amazing!  This was definitely one of those note to self moments.  I know now that anytime the port is going to be accessed to my knowledge, that I'll want to give myself at least an hour to get that bad boy numbed up.

I've been going back and forth on whether or not to post a picture of my "battle wounds" but have people wanting to see what the port looks like under my skin so I decided why not? My incisions are healing up quite nicely, and I'm hoping the scars will fade with time.  The port is what's sticking out from under my skin on the right side of my chest.  I apologize in advance if this grosses you out.  It still kind of grosses me out!

The port

Josh and mom came to treatment with me this morning just as last time.  We camped out in the same room we were in on day one, and decided that's going to be our room going forward through this process.  We are all about having control, and even though we lost that control with this Lymphoma diagnosis, we have control over where we're going to sit each time we're in there, and what we're going to stuff in our faces while we sit for the next 3 hours.  Today it was mini muffins, bananas, cool ranch Doritos, and sandwiches...all before 11 AM.  Thanks mom for bringing the goods!  She even brought Miracle Whip and Dijon Mustard for the sandwiches.  What a gal!

Treatments usually start between 8:30 and 9 most days even though we're there earlier to meet with Dr. Londer (my Oncologist) first to discuss how the previous treatments went, and any side effects I may have experienced.  After the first round of chemo, I had such gut rot which I blogged about previously.  Dr. Londer chalks it up to nerves of the appointment itself, which makes total sense.  This time around I knew what to expect.  It's that fear of the unknown that gets me.  I had such horrendous stomach acidity issues after that first treatment, and today it was so much better.  When I got in there, they took blood work first which is standard because they want to make sure my white and red blood counts are good before they start pumping my body with the ABVD drugs.  The results came back showing that I basically bottomed out, which isn't such a good thing.  My WBC (white blood count) went from 3.3, which is a tad low anyways to 1.8 and my Granulocytes, which is another category of WBC's went from 2.76 to 0.41.  Thankfully though, my Monocytes went up considerably, meaning my bone marrow is doing it's job!  On 9/9, they were at 2 and 0.05 and are now up to 29 and 0.51.  My Lymphosites, which are my immature WB cells are up considerably from 9/9 which means that although my counts bottomed out, my body is getting ready to building up these cells.  So what does all this mean for those of us not in the medical field?  Simply that yes, my immune system is down considerably right now, but that my body is working it's butt off to get me better.  This also meant that they could carry out my chemo as planned. Time to rock and roll baby!

While we're on the subject of a weak immune system,  there are going to be times when my immune system is down (obviously).  Unfortunately that means that as much as I want to see family and friends, I will need to stay away from children and anyone who has so much as a sniffle, even if you think/know it's from allergies.  This includes anyone who may not be sick themselves, but has been around others who have been sick.  Please understand that it has nothing to do with me not caring about you or wanting to spend time with you.  It just means there will be times, typically 3-4 days after chemo that my body will be extremely vulnerable to infection which will be much harder to fight off and could result in a hospital stay, which I'd like to avoid if possible.  Note though that for the most part, I should be up and running the rest of the time so we can reschedule fun stuff if we run into this situation =)

Here are a few pictures from the past couple Chemo Fridays for your viewing pleasure...

Chemo Day 1 - Checking in with Deb (the scheduler)

 Mom and I waiting to head back to the room. Feeling a bit on edge...

All hooked up and ready to go.

 Chemo Day 2 (Today) - Mom and Josh

 Here we go again! Chemo Round 2.  Still smiling!

This isn't much of a transition, but I want to wish my brother Kevin a happy 23rd birthday today!  It was nice to spend time with him, Josh, and the parents this evening.  We got some good laughs in and indulged in steaks, whipped potatoes that probably contained half a days caloric count in 1 healthy spoonful, and red velvet cake.  I think it's safe to say nobody left hungry!