Successful

I was successfully chemotherapied today. Is that a word? My blood counts were acceptable, though my white blood cell count was deteriorating and they saw fit to give me an injection of Neulasta to increase my body's production of... can I remember? Neutrophils? I think that's right. My legs seem to ache just a bit, something that I attribute to the Neulasta because I haven't had that particular sort of pain before. My red blood cell count is also slightly low, but it was slightly low before I even started chemotherapy - there is a family history of anemia in the men in my family, and apparently I did not escape that bequest of the past, though I'm sure my lack of appetite lately has something to do with the anemia as well.

But all in all, it was a pretty positive trip to the oncology clinic. The bone marrow biopsy suggests that I have no involvement in my bone marrow, though they can't be entirely definitive because they only got a partial sample when they did the original biopsy. They want two sorts of tissue to test. First, they suck (or "aspirate") a small volume of frothy red marrow out of the bone, and then they want a little core sample of bone material itself. In my case they got the aspirate with no problem, but my hip bone was so hard the core sample portion wouldn't come loose and stayed in the bone. So, technically, without both samples to test, they can't say my bone marrow is clear, but the aspirate tested negative, which is a jolly good sign anyway. It means I'll have to have another bone marrow biopsy in roughly five months, which is about as welcome a thought as digging up the septic tank, but it does tend to rule out the possibility that I'll ever have to have a bone marrow transplant.

The oncologist was also pleased with the speed with which my nodes were responding to treatment. I used to have a big icky thing under my chin, but it is now almost entirely gone. I can hardly tell it's there, and if you didn't know what you were feeling for, you'd probably miss it entirely. The nodes in my neck and behind my ear are definitely shrinking (some faster than others, notably the ones on my left side, which are at this point practically gone) and my left leg continues to improve as the deep nodes in my groin shrink. The sensation of strange surface numbness and hypersensitivity (what an odd contrast in symptoms) has largely vanished. I'm not ready to start full-scale rehab on my leg, which is weak as a collection of wet linguini at this point, but I can definitely walk, drive and work, and that's enough for now. A certain amount of rehab will happen by default as I walk and do things.

I myself am pleased that the chemo didn't really knock me on my keester today. I get four drugs: DTIC, bleomycin, vinblastine, and Adriamycin. The DTIC (also known as dacarbazine) comes in a fair-sized plastic bag that takes about an hour to empty into my port. Both times now, I've suddenly felt myself get old, tired and slow about three quarters of the way through the original blast of DTIC. It feels a great deal like suddenly realizing that you're coming down with a cold - you become aware that your limbs are suddenly heavy, you're suddenly very tired, and you really want nothing more than to lie back and sleep (to the detriment of those who sit through chemo with you, as it makes them think that they are uninteresting). But other than that one attack of the DTIC Malaise, I didn't feel too bad, and I only slept for an hour or two after I got home, after which I felt pretty good, all things considered.

So I feel pretty good tonight. No nausea, a sense that I'm making progress, a sense that my body and chemotherapy are going to win the war against cancer, and the realization that I'll be ready to go back to work on Monday - that's comforting, all of it.