Two Down

Thus ends day two of my new chemo regimen. Gawd.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I'm under the IV drip for five to seven hours each, taking aboard a gigantic bag of epotacide and a slightly less gigantic bag of cisplatin (not to mention a dose of Lasix, an anti-emetic, and a steroid). Then I go to work for as long as I can manage.

It makes for a long day, but I guess it's nothing I can't bear in the long run, especially since it seems to be working. The pain in my back is already gone, the pain in my leg is dramatically reduced, and the swelling in my neck has already receded by about a third in only two days. I can stand a lot of suffering if it seems to be for a reason, and thus far, it seems to be for a very good reason.

So what are the main side effects so far? The most memorable is a truly vile, sour metallic taste in my mouth. It's like licking a mummified penny, only it doesn't go away. If I eat anything, I can still taste the metallic taste and think "That would be good rice if rice normally came mixed with mummified pennies." The chemo also tends to make me a bit headachy, a headache that reminds me of nitroglycerine or even Neulasta. And I'm beat. Exhausted.

Fortunately nausea doesn't seem to figure into the picture, at least not yet. That'll take five to seven days to crop up. Whee.

I'm not sure what happens Friday. I know I go in for chemo, but I get a different drug whose name escapes me. It also doesn't take five to seven hours. Further bulletins on that as I figure out the details.

Repeat for six months and hope for the cancer to just DIE.