Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Dear Friends and Family,

Yesterday I spent pretty much all day at the oncology center for my second 6-hour chemo treatment. Now I have to wear this little pump until tomorrow, to keep pumping the stuff directly into my jugular vein through the catheter port they installed under my skin last month. The pump and packet of chemos is in a fanny pack—a bit awkward, but no real problem. Tricky to sleep with, though…

From my last experience, I figger I can expect the side effects to hit me tomorrow evening, and last for about a week. Nausea, cramping, fuzzy-brain, and generally feeling like crap. However, this time I’ll be taking some counteractive medications, which I didn’t do last time, as I wanted to know what the actual effects were.

But the good thing is, once the effects wore off, I felt great!

So don’t expect me to be at my very best for the next week! Then I get a week off before the whole things starts again. Every two weeks for the next 6 months—12 treatments in all. Yippee!

BB & NT-OZ

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Dear Friends and Family,

Sorry to not have gotten back to everyone sooner with my chemo update. Each day I intend to write it, and each day gets filled up with other stuff.

I started chemotherapy on Monday, Nov. 3. The first session involved me sitting in a special chair at the oncology center for 4 hours while they pumped this chemical cocktail into me through the catheter port they implanted on Oct. 14 under the skin of my chest—which sends it right into my jugular vein. The mix consisted of Oxaliplatin, Leocovorin, Avastin, and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Each of these lists several possible side effects, but no way of knowing which ones I'd experience.

At the end of that 4-hour session, they fitted me up with a plugged-in pump and a pouch of the chemos to continue the flow for another 48 hours. Really awkward to sleep with, I can tell ya! Then I went back on Wed, Nov. 5, and they took out the catheter and sent me home. I felt fine up to that point, thinking this is a piece o' cake! But Wed. evening I started to feel really bad--stomach cramps, woozy in the head, achy all over, diarrhea (but no nausea, thank the gods!). This got worse over the next few days, with me feeling like crap all through the weekend. My whole abdomen felt like it did right after the colon surgery!

But by Tuesday evening, I was starting to feel better. And today I feel fine. Next Monday I go back and start the whole thing all over. And this will continue every two weeks for the next 6 months...

The PET scan on Oct. 10 found no indication of any tumors anywhere in my body, which puts me at Stage 3. This was excellent news, and I attribute it to all the amazing healing energies that have been pouring into me from throughout the worldwide magickal community. Thank you! The chemo is to completely purge any possible lingering cancer cells that might still be hiding out undetectable in my blood or lymph. My prognosis is excellent. But I still hafta go through this...

Samhain Blessings to everyone here…

-Oberon