Back to drug week day one, Monday:
I wake up with a stomach ache. Settle it with dry crackers and hot tea. Stomach and gut spend the day feeling just a little unsettled. No actual problems.
I do a load of washing. Go out to lunch with a friend. Get home, put out the rubbish, clean the toilets (my specialist share of the housecleaning). Eat dinner... and go to bed at 7:30. I am exhausted!
Tuesday: Overnight I drink more water. Before, during and after my early morning tablet-taking. Stomach and gut are more settled than yesterday, no stomach ache, no problems.
I help Deb mind the grandchild. Morning is fine. Afternoon, I'm close to exhausted. Deb carries most of the toddler-watch load.
I do feel that I'm not as ... involved? ... as I would like to be. I spend half the time sitting and watching. But smiling & enjoying :-) And when I am more active, grandson is happy to include me in whatever he is doing.
Mind you, I may have been the same with our own kids. Not fully involved until they were talking clearly... I'm always more into talking than doing.
Whatever. An enjoyable and exhausting day. Yet it's already after 7pm -- and I'm not yet ready for bed! (Not quite...)
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What with the various side-effects of drugs -- and the various individual reactions of each drug-taker -- it's difficult to fix a best possible mix for each person. So I'm trying to work out -- by trial and error -- just what works for me. For this drug week:
... The key anti-cancer drug, the "chemo", is Temozolomide. It must be taken on an empty stomach, with no food for another half hour (or is it an hour?!) after. I take my Temo at about 3:45am. That is early enough that it is worth going back to bed for an extra couple of hours' sleep.
Temo has side-effects of tiredness and nausea. And by "nausea" I mean, vomiting. Lower doses did not worry me. The current four capsules -- 400mg -- does make me sick. I just accept the tiredness.
... I take one Kytril to avoid the vomiting. It is taken before the Temo, to allow the Kytril to be in place before the Temo hits the system. So I take one Kytril at about 3am. Then stay awake till it's time to take the Temo.
While I'm waiting (between Kytril & Temo) I sit downstairs and read. With Autumn coming on, it can be cold. Monday, when I went back to bed I was so cold that I could not sleep. Today I am careful to rug up, to keep warm, to be warm when I go back to bed. And I sleep.
Kytril prevents vomiting. It also causes constipation. So I take Macrovic, an anti-constipation powder.
... Recommended dosage of Macrovic is from 1 to 8 sachets per day. I take two sachets per day, one with dinner at about 6pm and a second sachet with breakfast, about 7am. I do this for each of my five drug days and it seems to work. Except...
Last month the Macrovic seemed to keep on working... for several days after I stopped taking it. So, this month, I may miss the final morning-after sachet. Depending on how I'm feeling.
I wonder if the "cytotoxic" (toxic to living cells) Temo could be killing my intestinal flora. Perhaps I could add a macrobiotic to my drug regime? To rebuild my intestinal flora? Expert opinion has it that (a) intestinal flora (gut bacteria?) is so different to human cells that the Temo is unlikely to affect it. And (b) there are so many varieties of intestinal flora that it is highly unlikely that any single macrobiotic capsule would contain the right mix to rebuild what was killed. So... regular macrobiotics? Not this month.
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And that's it. Quite simple, really. Last month was not too bad. I hope that this month will be even better.
I expect to be tired, possibly exhausted, for at least a week. Then somewhat tired for one or two weeks after that. The most annoying thing is my digestive system.
If all goes well, I spend a week or two not daring to be away from a toilet for more than an hour.
And that is, If all goes well...
Let's hope that this month, I have the correct balance of drugs :-)
Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
... Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
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"Even if a million people repeat the same nonsense, it is still nonsense" … Anatole France (paraphrased)
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