Chemo started today, or as we refer to it Cycle1 (of 3) and went fairly well. No blood gushing out of my eye sockets or visions of the Reaper rising out of the ground to take me away. No, for the most part it was pretty boring. Got to meet the nurse who will be administering my treatment. She seems pretty nice, always making sure I am comfortable and have the things I need.
The two big drugs I got today were Etoposide and Cisplation. Basically Etoposide kills off cells, mainly cancer cells but also good cells unfortunately. The idea is that the good cells will regenerate themselves in about a month. This has become one of the weekly numbers we will be keeping our eyes on. Cisplation slows down the growth of any new cancer cells while this is all going on.
Tomorrow I get another drug added to my cocktail called Bleomycin. This is the bad boy of the three and has the potential of doing the most harm to my system. It jacks with your lungs pretty good and can cause skin rashes and mouth sores. They all have the issues of making you sick and loosing your hair.
This goes on everyday this week. Then the next 2 weeks I have my cocktail on Tuesday and that completes a Cycle. I then start the process all over again. The Bleomycin is given only on the Tuesdays and the other two drugs are only administered the first week of the cycle. They're also giving me a pre-chemo cocktail each morning that really cuts down the side effects such as nausea and keeps me hydrated.
That's about it for today. Only other real thing of concern, just to keep everyone informed, was some talk about my kidneys having problems. These cycles really put your body through the wringer and some numbers came back that my kidney functions are low. Right now, it's just a matter of making sure I drink a lot of water and other fluids and they feel everything will be Ok.