Oct 05

Chemo #6 – WE’RE HALFWAY THERE!!!

Today is Tuesday, October 5, and today we are doing chemo treatment #6 of 12. This means we are HALFWAY THROUGH TREATMENT!!! YAY!

Being halfway done has its advantages, because it means we are that much closer to being all the way done. However, it also has its disadvantages, mainly that the cumulative effects of the treatments are starting to become more noticeable.

I am more tired lately, and the entire chemo cycle (4 days following treatment) is rough. The chemo cycle also feels a lot more gross than earlier treatments. I just feel “bleh” the entire time.

That being said, I’m doing the same thing I did last treatment, and setting my sights on Saturday night. The wonderful thing about Saturday night is that the chemo drugs will be out of my system, and I will start to feel “normal” again (normal is in quotations because it means normal as in not having chemo drugs inside me, not normal as in not having to deal with cancer).

We do have good news today, which you can see if you look at the Neutrophils Page of my Blog. My Neutrophil White Blood Cells which went from 800 four weeks ago down to 500 two weeks ago, are now back up to 1000 this week! And they did it all on their own! I’d love to have 2000-3000 neutrophils, and I am glad that they are heading in the right direction!

Soon, I will be able to eat raw fruits and vegetables, not be afraid to mingle in large crowds, go backpacking in the mountains, and enjoy all the things I’ve had to let go of during this treatment time. I’m really looking forward to that!

So it’s getting tougher, but the Neutrophils are getting their act together. We’re halfway there, and now we can set our sights on the end goal… Treatment #12. Tuesday, December 28, 2010.
The number of days left until Treatment #12 is shown below (and it will count down the days automatically for us):



The drugs from the last chemo will be in my body until Saturday, Jan. 1, 2011. This means I might be celebrating New Year’s a day late, but we’ll have to see how I’m feeling.

In the meantime, stay focused, stay strong, and beat cancer!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.andrewmacdonald.com/chemo-6-halfway-there/

Sep 21

Chemo #5

Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010. Chemo #5. 41.67% of the way through treatment!

Today’s theme song is Mambo (Chemo) No. 5. If you want to sing along, be aure to replace all the girl names with drug names. Be sure to include the pre-medications: Aloxi, Emend, and Decadron. Also include the chemo drugs: Adriamycin, Bleomycin, Vinblastine, and Dacarbazine (as I continue, you know they get sweeter!). Then there’s all the other drugs for anti-nausea: Emend, Zofran, Phenergan. And Temazepam, the sleeping pills to help with the insomnia.

Wonderful cocktails!

Waiting for Chemo to Start

Waiting for Chemo to Start

Chemo went well today. The camaraderie we are building with the nurses, doctors, and other chemo patients is an amazing source of positive energy and support. We are very thankful for it. We did our usual routine, starting with the bloodwork on the 1st floor, a visit to the doctor’s office on the 6th floor to see the nurse, and then back down to the 1st floor to the infusion center for chemo. My parents came to visit and brought us some delicious soup from Panera. Jacqui had Creamy Tomato soup, and I had French Onion. It was wonderful! We finished chemo around 1:45PM, and then came home, picked up prescriptions for my anti-nausea meds, and now taking it easy and letting the chemo drugs do their job by catching the Reed-Sternberg cells up on the fact that I am cancer free and they need to follow through on that memo!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.andrewmacdonald.com/chemo-5/

Sep 14

BLOG NEWS: New look for website

We’ve changed the design of the site a little bit with a new theme, and hope that this offers a little more functionality. Users can now view blog posts by category, and navigate through posts more easily.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.andrewmacdonald.com/blog-news-new-look-for-website/