Cycle 2 - Day 4

So cycle 2 is in full effect. Days 1 and 2 went fine. Day 3 was a little worse, my nausea started to kick in and I developed a new symptom which I assume is from the Bleomycin on day 2: it can cause "pulmonary fibrosis" or reduced lung capacity. I hadn't had any of this until Thursday evening when I started to find it hard to take a deep breath. Every time I try to take a relatively deep breath my lungs hurt at the top of my chest and I cough. This again is an expected symptom, I had to do a baseline pulmonary test prior to starting chemo to determine my lung function before compared to after chemo. They may have to give me drugs at some point to repair my lungs but hopefully not, it's starting to feel better already actually. And after all this is finished my only limitations should be no scuba diving (no problem, I'm afraid of most things in deep water) and no oxygen bars (no problem, I'm not cool enough to go to places like oxygen bars). And unlike Lance Armstrong I will probably not go on to win 7 Tour De Frances after surviving testicular cancer. He actually did a different chemo regiment which did not include Bleomycin so that he could still race afterwards.

Today is day 4 and as expected my nausea is back. I would say it's slightly worse than last time. It also doesn't seem as if the new nausea drugs are helping any more than the last ones but maybe without them I would be in even worse shape, who knows? One of the new drugs is supposed to help with delayed nausea, as in the nausea I get in the later days of chemo and the few days following, I think. The extra fluid they will be giving me this cycle should also help.

My sister left to go home last night which was sad. It was nice to have her around. She came and sat with me at chemo for a couple of days which meant Adrienne could go and get her classroom ready for school on Tuesday which was great. I talked to Ruth-Ann this morning and apparently they had to replace the tire and brakes on her airplane before they could leave Winnipeg which meant she would have missed her connection to St. John's but luckily the pilot of the flight from Toronto to St. John's was on her flight from Winnipeg so they had to wait. So instead of getting into St. John's at 3:30 AM they arrived at 4:40AM. A late night for my sister who had been up since 6 or 7 AM Winnipeg time.

I doubt I will be up for blogging in the next few days based on how I feel right now. It's really hard to say though. The nausea may be better in the next few days than it was last cycle or it may be worse. The other thing I really don't look forward to is the neopogen injections (to boost my white cell production). I've been chatting with other patients and some have said the bone pain keeps them from getting out of bed some days. These people are older and get more injections than are planned for me but again, who knows. As one nurse put it, "it's worth it considering you could get an infection which could kill you before the cancer does". This is true I guess. Either way, they may put me out of commission for a little while. On a positive note, this should be the second last Saturday morning I spend at Cancer Care and I think the last long weekend.

Anyway, Adrienne may post something for me if I feel terrible or maybe I will post again in a few days.