And Today Makes 7

OK, so I have sore muscles, or should I say ‘sorer’ muscles today. As long as I don’t do anything, I’m fine. But when I start to use my muscles, I get all twitchy and shaky and have to almost lay down for it to go away. I don’t even like to sit in my office chair for very long although I can recline there somewhat.

I’m sorry, Nettie, I didn’t see your comment on the 5th, and it didn’t show up in my email like it is supposed to. NP Nancy said that the body remembers the painful process of last time and can’t respond as well this time. Which means, either she lied with the good news/bad news routine or I get to look forward to more fun the next time. Or both.

Although, Saturday Nurse Martha had opined that they hit me hard and then they hit me soft with the chemo. So maybe the next round will be softer.

Speaking of Round 5, it’s off my calendar for now; I have to have another PET Scan. I had the follow up for the scan scheduled before I had the test scheduled. And, I had a Nutritional Consult scheduled without even knowing it. They’re going to put my schedule together and SEND IT TO ME IN THE MAIL!!!!!!! And we all know how much of an effort the City and Federal Governments are committed to for delivering my mail, don’t we?

But I am going to have to train Ben to bring the mail in for me. I’m not going through all the effort of getting dressed and all bundled up just to go out to the mailbox.

SIL Julie sent me an article about cancer patients using the computer to document their symptoms with their doctors.

Having cancer patients report to doctors on their symptoms and side effects
online may improve their care, a new study finds.

Even the sickest cancer patients are willing and capable of reporting their symptoms online, says a team from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

"Cancer care has become increasingly complex, causing office visits to become more compressed. This makes it challenging for the clinician to comprehensively assess each patient's symptoms in that brief window of time," study author Dr. Ethan Basch, a medical oncologist, said in a prepared statement.

"Because cancer therapies can be highly toxic, early detection of symptoms and timely treatment is vital. What is exciting to us about online self-reporting is that patients can alert clinicians to crucial symptoms in real time," Basch said.

“Reporting their symptoms may improve their care.” Ya think? “Compressed office visits” is something I have been concerned about. And not being able to remember all the things I wanted to tell him. Especially since I very rarely see a doctor anymore; I get the second string.

Anyway, Julie’s article led me to further research and I found out a few things that might be applicable to my situation. The cancer drugs kill cells in my body. They kill fast growing cells to target the cancer cells, but they also kill other cells in my GI tract. And they kill tumor cells, and brain cells, etc. When a cell dies, the body tries to get rid of the parts of the dead cell that it can’t use. All the poisons and toxins released from that cell get dumped into the blood stream and circulate though the body, affecting everything they come in contact with.

Over Thanksgiving I visited a friend in the hospital because a clot of material, blood or otherwise, got dumped into his bloodstream, made it’s way to his lung and took up residence there. The doctors had to persuade it to “move along.”

So, I’m having all these cells in my body dying and giving up their little carcasses to my bloodstream. And over time all this stuff builds up. Wouldn’t it make sense to undergo some “body cleanse” to help rid the body of these toxins? I could be doing an herbal body cleanse designed to remove the crap. But I forgot, doctors don’t believe in herbs. They'd rather I suffered for their beliefs.

The part that had me worried, though, was the description of the breakdown of the tumor. Yes, some of it might end up leaving via my intestines, but other portions can leave via the blood supply to and from the tumor.

Which makes me wonder about the symptom that I reported to NP Nancy about the sharp pain in my right chest that I had over the course of a couple days. But then I forgot to mention the cold feet that I have been experiencing, even though I’m all bundled up.

A build up of lactic acid in the muscles can produce the muscle symptoms I describe. A build up occurs when there is insufficient flow of blood to the muscles to flush out the byproducts of muscle use. And cold feet occur when there is an insufficient supply of blood to the feet. Sounds like a whole lot of insufficiency going on. But what do I know.

I haven’t had to edit this as much as I’ve had to lately so my brain might be starting to recover, as well. Usually, I make all sorts of mistakes that I have to go back over, try to find, and then to correct. It’s getting easier so I just might have to go back to my inbox and start following up on those.

I started to take a bath earlier but was too tired to do even that. Maybe I can still do that tonight. I am glad that you guys have no idea what I’m talking about when it comes to all this fatigue. I really wouldn’t want you to experience it. It’s not a lot of fun let me tell you.

I’m hoping that I can be ‘near normal’ over the holidays when everyone will be home.