Cycle 6 Begins

Last time I checked in, I was in the first week of cycle 5. Now, it's cycle 6, with irinotecan and temozolomide replaced by ifosfamide and etoposide. I had the etoposide go in before lunch. It took about an hour. My nurse told me it does not have many side effects outside of hair loss and immune system suppression. Now I have a bag of ifosfamide dripping into my veins. I feel a bit queasy but otherwise fine right now, but I know that its side effects will eventually kick in, and cause a number of the same problems I was reporting when I was getting cyclophosphamide. Hopefully since I'm getting just two drugs instead of the three from cycles 1-3, I won't feel as bad as I did during those cycles. I will get the drugs today through Friday. Week 2 will be spent resting and waiting for my blood counts to recover. During week 3, I'll get more scans to see where I'm at.

To recap cycle 5 developments: I was still focused on rehab, with 2x/week physical therapy plus exercises outside of it. One morning, when I was getting chemo, I was using one of the grab bars in the clinic to do a couple of my exercises, and a doctor and a nurse both asked if I was ok and needed help (they thought I was having a lot of trouble moving). I had to explain that I was doing physical therapy, and not struggling to get back to my seat. I paid a couple of visits to the prosthetist for more adjustments. The feeling of tightness at the top and the associated discomfort are gone, and now the only problems I'm having are at the bottom of my left leg. I feel discomfort and pressure there when I walk, presumably from movement of the limb within the socket. Hopefully, more adjustments will be able to fix this. Even with the discomfort issues, I'm still progressing very well with my walking. I'm now using one crutch rather than two to go places. This included a subway ride and a trip to lower Manhattan yesterday. My physical therapist might move me to a cane next week. Outside of rehab, things were smooth until 8 days ago, when I got sick, in spite of the chemo cycle not destroying my immune system. Make it now 3 of the first 5 cycles where I've come down with an illness of some kind. Minor each time, but still a nuisance. This time, I was nauseous and able to eat very little for most of the day, and slept most of the time from late afternoon until the next morning. Then I had a bout of diarrhea that lasted into the following morning. Was it the illness or the irinotecan? I don't think I'll have an answer, but per procedure while in an irinotecan cycle, I came into the clinic, where I received IV fluids. Thankfully, the diarrhea resolved while I was there.

Hopefully cycle 6 is not too hard on me; I'm hoping to actually get out of New York a couple of times during my recovery period. Haven't left since the day I got here, and while New York is a big city with a lot going on, my world has still felt very small since I began treatment. The subway ride felt great; I'm sure travel outside of New York will too. My ability to travel will all depend on my immune system bouncing back in a timely manner after it takes a hit from the chemo drugs, so I hope that happens!