ICE treatment round 1 day 3

 Day 3 of ICE and things are still going OK. I feel all right (not great). My blood counts are good (enough). I am still scheduled to get out of the hospital later today, yea! It will be nice to be home. It looks like I am going to keep this new pick line for the time being- they might need to do blood transfusions if my numbers do not behave so we are going to keep it in. It will require some home heath care to clean the dressings but it should not be a big deal, just makes showering a lot more complicated. I should also add that my INR number it at 4.7 (the blood thickness level) and that is too high, remember it needs to be between 2 and 3. They no not know why its so high but the thought is that chemo has just thrown things out of wack. We will just keep an eye on it along with all the other things.

The “next step” is to wait and watch my counts, then get me back in here to do this again as soon as possible. There is going to be a big drop in all my blood numbers over the next 3 days or so. The question will be how well my body can handle things and get me back in working order. I did not anticipate things getting worse, but the doc says its not over yet. The ICE takes a bit to get going, so we'll see. Even the hair loss (now inevitable) could be 4 weeks away. This will have an effect on my goal of getting back into the office to work next week (not sure what I was thinking). I am going to have to stay away from people and germs sooner than I expected. I should still be able to do work from home but we will see how I feel. I look forward to the distraction that work can provide from thinking and dealing with this cancer stuff, so I will do my best to get some work in as often as possible. Plus it helps to try and “stay in the loop” with the day to day stuff happening in the office.

ICE treatment round 1 day 2

So yesterday was a slow day but after a late night and late start on Tuesday (didn't get chemo until 10PM) it was needed. We did have a follow up ultrasound done to compare with last week (blood clot) and they say that is looking OK, nothing new. Personally, I was hoping for a reduction in the clot but the doc was not ready to say that.

At this point I have received the first two parts of the ICE chemo treatment the last one scheduled to begin around 11PM tonight. So it looks like I will have another wonderful (interrupted sleep) night in the hospital. Just as an FYI (as some of you may know) it is impossible to get more than two continuous hours of sleep when you are in the hospital with the nurse check-in's, blood work and IV changes, you never get a break. I will do what I can to get out ASAP Friday.  Just knowing that I need to be back here in a week makes me what to get out quicker.

I think the chemo is going good.  At this point I am only dealing with fatigue and some discomfort.  They say the fun will begin in 6 to 8 days from now. There has been one bonus to the chemo and that part of the pre-meds includes a steroid that has greatly reduced the swelling from the blood clot. It has helped dramatically.  I now have full movement of my neck and it just feels better all around.

ICE treatment round 1 day 1

After a needed break away to San Diego to visit family for the x-mas holiday (got to see mom, dad and grandma in addition to my sister's family). It was great to have all the distractions of the family gathering to keep my mind off the aches and worry's of the past and upcoming events. Now, as expected we are back in the hospital today for the first round of ICE chemo treatment. We checked in around 8:30am and had been waiting until about 2:00pm to finally getting things going. They placed a pick line in my left upper arm (kinda behind the bicep muscle.) It should help eleviate some blood draw pokes and will be instrumental when they begin administering the chemo. I am still dealing with the pain from the blood clot and the fevers but with the pain medications its been manageable. We have learned that this chemo is going to wipe me out more thoroughly than we had expected. It all depend on how my body takes it but my blood counts will be greatly reduced and infection is going to be a much bigger concern than we had thought. Still I should be out of here on Thursday night or Friday morning. I will post more after the first round has sunk in a bit, but right now I am doing OK . Just way tired, but that is to be expected.