Round 3

John and I fronted up to the hospital on Thursday for my third lot of chemo. The nurse was unsure if I would be able to have it as the results of my blood test were not good. After asking a few more questions she rang the doctor and he asked that they wait till he came to see me. After the wait he arrived and we discussed my progress and he decided to go ahead with the chemo and that he would arrange for 2 units of blood for a transfusion. All went well - but it turned out to be a long day - we left the hospital at 6.45pm.

I have been doing okay since then and the tiredness is starting to set in today. The extra nausea drugs finish today - so we will see what tomorrow brings.

The prolonged nausea I have been experiencing is most likely from the pain killers but the doctor decided not to change them as most things will bring the same result.

I am feeling positive and ready to tackle this round - here we go!!

Round 2 has been better!!

I have handled this round much better - but I have still found nausea challenging. Today for no reason I can figure out I had bad nausea which basically wiped out the day. Last Thursday was also a very bad day. I relish the good days. A bad nausea day can put me in the doldrums and having feeling very sorry for myself and just wanting things to be like my old life before mesothelioma.

I will be going for round 3 on Thursday.

Update on Round 2

I have been rather slow to post how this round is going...sorry. As on the 1st session the first couple of days were okay. Sunday I was not feeling too good - again the nausea kicked in and I have had it ever since. I must have a very sensitive stomach!! I have taken more nausea medication this time. Some of it works well and some only makes it tolerable.

Monday and Tuesday I particularly found mentally challenging as I was feeling terrible and the possibilities of my situation seemed very confronting. I found staying positive over these few days a challenge. But of course things do pick up and the the last couple of days I have coped with nausea better. I don't seem to have got as tired this time - whether that has been relevant to the change in my painkillers I am not sure.

I visited with a doctor on Thursday afternoon who was a very kindly gentleman and also told me that I will never be a statistic and that I must remain optomistic. He did brighten up my outlook.

Treatment 2 - Saturday

My treatment went okay on Thursday with the doctor endeavouring to addrss my nausea troubles. I took a different drug before the treatment and as he feels the nausea so late in the treatment may be due to my pain drugs so he has changed them from ocycontin to a patch I wear on my arm and only have to change every 72 hours. I will also take some other tummy medicine - let's hope we are on to something.

On the way home from the hospital I suggested to John we go away for a couple of days as based on last time I felt okay for the first couple of days after the treatment. So we have come over to stradbroke for acouple od days. The waves and sea breezes are good therapy and so far so good.

Next round starts tomorrow

I have survfived the first round of chemo and will front up tomorrow for round 2. I have found you have to put a lot of work and faith in to keeping positive,- even when you don't want to, enjoy what you can. I feel pretty úseless'most of the time - not able to help where I would like to, not able to get the things done I would like to - someone said yesterday at a support group John and I attended that you can never go back (sometimes I want my life before I got sick so badly) I just have to make the best of each day and what it offers and have hope. Hope is such an important part of moving forward and not looking back. Of course I hope that this treatment is going to stop those cancer cells in their tracks for a while!!

I have a picture of my sister who passed away in 2007 on the board in front of my desk and I think of the heroic way she handled her illness which was a lot more devistating than mine and it gives me a lot of strength.