Hello everyone<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week I started my new round of treatment. It consists of radiation treatment every weekday for 25 days over 5 weeks and oral chemo treatment daily for the duration of the 5 weeks. So far it has been pretty smooth sailing. Talking to the nurses with both the regular symptoms are what I need to be cautious of. Fatigue, nausea and diarrhea. The fun part is that the radiation treatment and the chemo treatment may both result in those side effects. I am told to monitor it and see how things are. These are pretty easy to deal with though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I have been told is that the fatigue from radiation is worse and that after a couple of hours it hits you after treatment. The way I realized to combat this is just work through it and you will not have time to think that you are tired. During chemo treatment I was permitted to work on my laptop during treatment. I asked the manager of radiation if I was permitted to use wireless earbuds while I was in the treatment room. I was told no emphatically. When I asked the staff it was divided, one said I should be able to and the other said no that I was there for treatment and should be relaxing. My appointments seem to alternate between morning and afternoon appointments and the toughest part with the radiation is that I can not eat or drink anything 2 hrs prior to the appointment. It creates some issues with my strict eating schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The more difficult part is my oral chemo pills need to be taken 12 hours apart, so I have timers set for that. They also need to be taken on a full stomach. The morning one is not too bad as I have it after breakfast. The harder part is having the nighttime one. I decided to take it at 8am and 8pm and it is tough having a completely full stomach prior to taking it. They said I should drink a full glass of water as well since there are so many pills I need to take. Since I can not drink a full glass of water, especially after a full stomach I drink what I can and I manage all of the pills fine. I am also back to the oral rinse routine, so I have timers and alarms going off telling me to do various things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Talking to the pharmacist they want my hands to turn a faint shade of pink or red to indicate that the dosage is correct. If I do not have any side effects, they will increase the dosage for me. I personally do not think I will get too many side effects as I normally need the maximum daily dosage to be effective. The fact that I am taking it everyday though may counter it. It seems to work well for my migraines. I need to put cream on my hands and feet throughout the day to prevent potential blistering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things are going so well that my personal cancer navigator is going away for a couple of days leaving me to fend for myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quoc Hao<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hello everyone This week I started my new round of treatment. It consists of radiation treatment every weekday for 25 days over 5 weeks and oral chemo treatment daily for the duration of the 5 weeks. So far it has been pretty smooth sailing. Talking to the nurses with both the regular symptoms are what…<\/p>\n