Before I update you on my progress, I thought you all should know that my loving wife has been hobbling around on a walking boot with a broken 2nd Metatarsal for the past 3 weeks. This past Friday , she went back to the doc for a check-up and it was determined she has 4 blood clots below her knee. She started taking Cumadin and is taking Lovenox injections 2 times a day which she tried giving to herself once and bruised herself. Fortunately, Linda Adams (one of our gracious friends who happens to be a nurse) has been stopping in every morning and evening to give Dana her shots. I feel horrible that Dana has to deal with this on top of worrying about my ordeal.
As far as I'm concerned, right now I'm feeling pretty good. I did however, have a rough 3-4 days following the chemo treatment. The night of my treatment (Tuesday), I woke up at about 1 am with a very bad case of indigestion/heartburn that made it very difficult to swallow even water. On top of that, I began to hiccup uncontrollably which further compounded the problem. I am being told that it stemmed from the Dexamethasone steroids that I was taking which I understand are used to help the body deal with the chemo.
Wednesday morning I was prescribed Prilosec to counter the heartburn but was told it may take a day or 2 to "get into my system" and a muscle relaxant to counter the hiccups. Wednesday afternoon, I went back to the infusion center for a Nuelasta shot. This is a drug that makes your bones work "overtime" to regenerate the white blood cells that the chemo destroys and was told the side effects could be "achy bones" or flu-like symptoms. In the meantime, I took 2 more steroid pills Wednesday morning and 2 more that night plus anti nausea pills.
Thursday was probably the roughest day with little desire to eat or drink with no energy as my body was overloaded with drugs and chemicals it had never experienced before. My Angel of a wife was there every step to make sure I forced myself to eat and drink and finally I started to get some relief on Saturday and by Sunday, I was feeling much better. Even went to my my cousin Tucker's daughter's graduation party and started eating much better. It was also very nice to have the weekend off from radiation. This morning I woke up feeling better yet, and knocked out the 5th radiation treatment (only 28 more to go!).
The Doctors are evaluating the side effects from the first go around of chemo and will probably just keep me on the Prilosec which I'm hoping will ward off or minimize the heartburn going into the next chemo treatment. There is also talk of reducing the amount of steroids I will take next time as well. As far as the radiation effects and sore throat is concerned...not too bad, just a very dry "cotton mouth" and things just don't taste like they used to.
Thanks so much for all the prayers, thoughts, efforts and kind acts...Love you guys!
As far as I'm concerned, right now I'm feeling pretty good. I did however, have a rough 3-4 days following the chemo treatment. The night of my treatment (Tuesday), I woke up at about 1 am with a very bad case of indigestion/heartburn that made it very difficult to swallow even water. On top of that, I began to hiccup uncontrollably which further compounded the problem. I am being told that it stemmed from the Dexamethasone steroids that I was taking which I understand are used to help the body deal with the chemo.
Wednesday morning I was prescribed Prilosec to counter the heartburn but was told it may take a day or 2 to "get into my system" and a muscle relaxant to counter the hiccups. Wednesday afternoon, I went back to the infusion center for a Nuelasta shot. This is a drug that makes your bones work "overtime" to regenerate the white blood cells that the chemo destroys and was told the side effects could be "achy bones" or flu-like symptoms. In the meantime, I took 2 more steroid pills Wednesday morning and 2 more that night plus anti nausea pills.
Thursday was probably the roughest day with little desire to eat or drink with no energy as my body was overloaded with drugs and chemicals it had never experienced before. My Angel of a wife was there every step to make sure I forced myself to eat and drink and finally I started to get some relief on Saturday and by Sunday, I was feeling much better. Even went to my my cousin Tucker's daughter's graduation party and started eating much better. It was also very nice to have the weekend off from radiation. This morning I woke up feeling better yet, and knocked out the 5th radiation treatment (only 28 more to go!).
The Doctors are evaluating the side effects from the first go around of chemo and will probably just keep me on the Prilosec which I'm hoping will ward off or minimize the heartburn going into the next chemo treatment. There is also talk of reducing the amount of steroids I will take next time as well. As far as the radiation effects and sore throat is concerned...not too bad, just a very dry "cotton mouth" and things just don't taste like they used to.
Thanks so much for all the prayers, thoughts, efforts and kind acts...Love you guys!
Hey Fred and Dana,
ReplyDeleteWow, you 2 have a lot on your plate! Sorry to hear about Dana's leg. that must be scary. The picture of you and the dog is so good. If I didn't know any better I wouldn't know either of you were ailing. Keeping the postive thoughts heading your way. Love, ~Vicki
Fred, i've wondered for weeks why i didn't hear you doing 90 second breaks on the hawk in the last couple of months and was heartbroken when i found out you had cancer...i called a few hawk employees to get your phone number to call and see how you were.....i'm so glad dana took the time to personally call me and let me know what was going on.....i enjoyed reading your blog too giving us information on what you and dana are going thru......nice chair from martin's furniture; i haven't seen kevin in years (i used to deliver window shades for a company and martin's was one of my clients; i hit a parked car outside the store one day, drove away and then felt bad and called kevin to 'confess'....what a klutz i am......i have to agree with vicki that you look great in the pics on the blog but i also know a picture can be very deceiving.....u r very lucky dana is a rock and i know as much as you loved being on the air, your family ALWAYS came first......you must feel proud of the support of your friends and i know your best friend, dana.....i wish you well for a speeedy recovery but i know it's a slow day to day process..........i'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers and will miss you talking about the lou franco project on 99.9 the hawk.....gene 'stosh' staschak
ReplyDeletep.s........just like my wife she never calls me 'stosh' and dana never used the 'dan' word when i talked to her.....