After chemo treatments patients experience a decline in white blood cells, red blood cells & hemoglobin, and platelets. All of which makes them fatigued and susceptible to infection. It takes anywhere from a day to a week for a patient to reach the nadir and then another couple of days to a week or so to climb back out again. Each treatment is cumulative, hitting the person harder each time. Paul's trough was over two weeks last cycle. The treatment this week was delayed a week to give Paul more recovery time.
Even though Paul's doing Hyper-Cytoxan instead of EPOCH now, so far this cycle seems no different from the first three. Cytoxan by itself can cause all the classic side effects you think of for chemo. He's feeling the fatigue (hard to tell if that's liver or chemo though), aches, nausea, and edema. Compounding this is the medicine he takes to bring his white blood cell count back up and the medicines to prevent infection. They can cause aches and nausea too.
Poison can heal. It's paradoxical that what makes a person feel worse actually makes the person better in the long run. That's our hope.
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I just wanted to let you know that I stopped into 'sundial', and am sniffling in the kitchen this father's day after reading it. I'm so sorry for the pain your family is experiencing right now.
ReplyDeleteThe voice you have here is so courageous, healthy and just amazing, Monica. A very important project, this blog! Thank you for sharing!
heather reck
Thank you for the kind words :-) I find I can only get through this with a sense of humor and a dose of realism.
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ReplyDeleteHey, Monica... so wish you guys could fast forward through all of this. Poor Paul! What incredible patience you both have (or are learning to have) with all of the waiting. Know that you are both in my thoughts and prayers. -a.schweitzer
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