you can rock it, you can roll it....

You can rock it, you can roll it,
You can lock the rock and put your feet up.
You can sit right back and really enjoy
Your genuine la-z-boy.

I do realse some people reading this may not be old enough (or didn't grow up in NZ during 1980's) to appreciate the above lyrics,  but this pretty much summarised my Tuesday visit to the oncology day unit. I should add that I've had some technical difficulties with this blog, so its going to be picture-less and after having to retype it, it will be rather shorter than planned.
Anyway... so back to sitting in a lazy boy.... no remote control though, but instead being covered with a mini electric blanket on my arm (all will be revealied laer), and attatched to a i.v line.
welcome to my "every 3rd Tuesday".

So as a quick update, here's where I am at with Chemo... on the 17th I started what I'm going to refer to as my "insurance policy" chemo. The aim of this is chemo treatment is to basically kill any possible random cancer cells that may be left in my body (as stated before Chemo kills fast growing cells, which cancer is one type).
this time Chemo will last for 4.5 months and will consist of "rounds" which entail a 21 day cycle. On day 1, I'll receive an IV chemo drug called Oxaliplatin. This is administered through a vein in my arm and involves me sitting in a chair (funny enough a La-Z-Boy chair) for a few hours whilst that and a mixture of glucose (yep sugar) is pumped into me (apparently it flows better with glucose... doesn't everything flow better with sugar!). This drug has some unusual side effects (the biggest one is that I become highly sensitive to cold for a few days (- bring in the electric arm blanket), particularly touching and eating / drinking cold stuff, thankfully this only last for about 4-5 days after the iv infusion). The Oxaliplatin, so I've discovered also makes me sick.... picture (well try not too) really sick... if it was possible I would have thrown up my eyeball on Tuesday night... on a bonus, this only lasts a day and I have some great meds to help stop it.
Anyway..... also on day one of the cycle I start taking an oral chemo drug called capecitebine (this is the same drug I had last time, but in a stringer dose this time). I take this for 14 days and then have a week drug free, before restarting the round/ cycle again with "day one".
The good news is that I'm now on day 8 and I'm feeling great! bring on a week of no drugs... I bet I'll feel amazing!!!!
welcome to my world for the next 4 and a half months!.

Right, so that's my latest updates, other than having met with my surgeon on Monday this week..... that's me.  FYI apt went well.... I'm now medically cleared to restart rehabbing my sliced and diced body..... so watch this space.

so until next time...
take care
RAG