Friday, May 16, 2008

Chemo #6

Today was my 6th chemo treatment at Karmanos. My brother Steve was kind enough to join me for the day, as Deb had to be careful with the remaining sick days in her school year. These treatments are progressively more difficult for me both physically and mentally. Even though I realize that the most difficult period will only last for about 5 days, the mere thought of those days is dreadful. It is probably very similar to the feeling young children have before going to get an immunization shot from the doctor or visiting a dentist. The anticipation is nearly as bad as the pain/discomfort itself.

Having Steve there with me for the infusion was good, since he could understand my treatment better than I could ever explain it to him, he could monitor me when the nurses were not there (I sleep for about 50% of the infusion), and most importantly he is great company. Similar to the 5th treatment, I received 25% less chemo than my initial infusions. The body can only take so much of these drugs before certain functions, like digestion, become compromised. I will get another CT scan before the next treatment, to see if chemo remains the best option for me.

1 comment:

Chris said...

Hope everything is going good now for you Nate, thx for the updates.

I had no idea we had so much in common until I read your blog. You like to autocross, I like to go road racing at Waterford and Gingermann. You like to drum, I like to drum -- I have a drum set too, but I don't play in a band. You like Triathlons, I am wanting to learn to swim better so I can get into them.. but I have no idea where to go to learn that. I did the swimming and running portion w/my dad on the 4th at a mock triathlon. AND we both like research. Do you happen to like video games too??

-Chris