August 2024 - Life on Chemothearpy

It's been a while since my last blog post and it's about time I get you caught up on the latest. 

I'm seriously arguing with Me, Myself and I, about posting YouTube videos instead of writing these long winded posts. Then I remind Myself, what do you know about video editing? Nothing! At some point I'll give it a try, but, who really wants to watch a video of me talking? lol.

Chemotherapy Progress:

Okay, back to the update.  As you may know I'm on an aggressive tri-thearpy treatment called ADT which involves Lupron-Depot, Docetaxel and Darloutamide.  ADT - androgen-deprivation therapy remains the principal treatment for patients with locally advanced and metastatic disease. Although a majority of patients initially respond to ADT, most after approximately 2 to 3 years will eventually develop castrate resistance cancer according to many of the research papers I have read.  The whole point in my case is to slow down the spread of the cancer - hopefully kill it off and extend my life.  

RANT Warning: If the medical community would have done their job in the first place of early detection especially when so many signs and symptoms where communicated to the doctors over the years, then I most probably wouldn't be in the situation of facing an early death. Males 40+ - Get a fucking PSA blood test done! It's easy, make sure you get a second one done a year later to double check that it's less than a value of 4 and it's not rising. While your at it double check all your insurances, house, vehicle, life, boat and make sure you have critical illness and full disability insurance on them - it's usually pretty cheap add-ons. end-of-rant

They - Oncology - don't tell you this when they are recommending tri-thearpy ADT but it is pretty common and that means more aggressive drugs and possibly a strong recommendation of surgery which will result in other issues that will drastically affect your bathroom routines.  

Docetaxel is the chemotherapy drug that is being delivered through an IV.  My very first session was a very unpleasant experience with lots of sorries form the nurses trying to get the IV needle into my arm. Even though you can clearly see my veins, it took two nurses a total of five tries to get the IV needle to work in my lower arm.  They tried both arms! I ended up pretty bruised for about a week and a half.

Chemotherapy Details: As the chemo is applied, the nurses bring you ice mittens and socks for you hands and feet. I ended up feeling chilled and hot at the same time with a blanket wrapped around me to stop me from shivering. The purpose of the ice mittens so to try and reduce the risk of neuropathy developing as a side effect of the drugs. It doesn't eliminate it entirely, just reduces the risk. If you are a type 1 diabetic, that risk is very high.  What the heck is neuropathy? In a nutshell it can cause:

• Tingling. This happens when there’s a problem with nerves that carry signals to your brain. This is like radio static you hear when you’re too far from the broadcasting station.
• Numbness. This happens when nerves can’t send or relay sensory signals, causing the loss of specific types of sensations. An example of this would be picking up a cold pop can, but not feeling the smoothness or coldness of the can, or not being able to feel the texture of carpet or the temperature of the floor through your feet.
• Imbalance and clumsiness. Nerves also carry sensations that your brain uses to keep track of the location of your hands and feet. You’re not consciously aware of these sensations, but they’re critical for balance and coordination. Without these sensations, you can experience a loss of balance, especially in the dark, and clumsiness with your hands.
• Pain. Nerve damage from peripheral neuropathy can cause malfunctions in how and when nerves send pain signals, making pain signals more intense (hyperalgesia) or happen too easily (allodynia). It can even cause nerves to generate pain signals spontaneously. This is known as “neuropathic” pain, and it’s the most noticeable and disruptive symptom of peripheral neuropathy.
• Muscle weakness and paralysis. Nerve deterioration from peripheral neuropathy weakens the connected muscles. That can cause paralysis, which may cause difficulty moving the toes, foot drop and hand weakness. Weakness can also affect muscles in the thighs, arms and elsewhere.
• Muscle atrophy. Loss of nerve connection can cause muscles to shrink in size, as well as weaken. This especially happens in the feet, lower legs and hands with peripheral neuropathy. Sometimes there are deformities of the feet and hands because of muscle loss.
• Uncontrolled muscle movements. Sometimes, nerves that lose their connection to the brain because of peripheral neuropathy become hyperactive on their own, causing cramps. 
• This is just some of the effects of neuropathy.

Back to the Treatments: After the first treatment Oncology recommended that I get a Bard Power Power put into my chest so that I wouldn't have the experience of the nurses poking me with needles in the arms so many times. I did proceed with that recommendation and went in for day surgery to get it installed. The surgeon makes a minor cut in the upper right of the chest close to the clavicle (collar bone), and inserts the device along with a catheter that goes into the artery which carries blood back to the heart. Then the surgeon sews the skin back up over the device.

Now the nurses (two weeks later) papulate the node on the device to find it and insert a special needle. The device is bidirectional so they can draw blood if needed and give drugs through it as well.  Make it much easier than jabbing my arms to insert an IV needle.

BUT!!! What they didn't tell me about the Bard Power Port is there are currently many class action lawsuits in the works where it is alleged that the material that the catheter is made of breaks down inside the vein.  The chemotherapy drugs are so toxic that it may be causing the materials to degrade.  Not only that, but apparently the device itself contains a plastic type substance called Durlin (is made by Dupont) and is not rated for internal body use.

Wonderful stuff eh!  If I knew all this prior, I wouldn't have proceeded with the getting this port installed.

First Session Side Effects:  

• The left side of my tongue started to swelled up 24 hours after the chemo treatment.
• 36 hours later my mouth had polyps and ulcers which was extremely sore.
• My extremities arms and legs were aching continuously. 
• Of course my head decided to get in on the action and give me a headache that lasted 4 days.
• A strange fatigue that makes me extremely lethargic but not able to sleep.
• Little to no appetite and when I do eat it tastes like I'm eating metal. (maybe I'm a cyborg! lol )
  
• Bored out of my mind, Binge on Netflix and trying to get some sleep when I could.
  

Second Chemotherapy Session:   The Oncology nurses used the new Bard Power Port in my chest. That made getting the toxic drugs so much easier.  A IV session of chemo for me takes around 2 hours at the hospital and then I can go home and rest.  This time the side effects included:

• All of the First Session side effects but a little quicker onset.
• Dry throat - hoarseness while speaking - Michele say be quiet!
• Lack of taste
  
• Bottoms of my feet getting ulcers and turning yellow.

Third Session is scheduled for today Tuesday August 13/20204.  - I'll provide feed back after a week or so on my experience.

 Things That Help Recover from Chemotherapy Symptoms: 

I don't think I have ever talked about my routines that I feel help me to recover quick from the effects of chemo.  This probably would apply to other diseases and treatments as well.  So here it is in bullet form:

• Eat well. What I mean here is purchase foods from local sources as much as possible and try to ensure they are organic.  Vegetables! Lots of them half of your plate should be vegetables. At least 2 cups per meal. Where breakfast is my exception for this rule.

• Eat lots of fruit daily, have fruit smoothie along with your breakfast, apples, oranges, grapes, blueberries, mangoes, pineapple. Make it easy on yourself and get the frozen mixed fruit from the store and add what every local fruit to it that you can purchase.  Add some vegetable based protein powder and some yogourt to your blender... maybe even some almond milk to thin it out a bit. It's very yummy! and great antioxidants, vitamins and fibre right from the source! 

• Exercise, get into a routine, To start off with 3 days a week do strength training, the rest of the days get out a walk and make sure you stretch out those limbs too.  Even do some aerobatics. Then increase how hard you work out at them.  Minimum 30 minutes a day.  Also drink lots of water with a high PH level too.  Don't push your body so hard that you can't do the exercises tomorrow.  Just workup to it. Try to ensure you are building muscle and getting the heart pumping a bit.  By the way swimming is an awesome exercise that doesn't put a lot of pressure on the joints.

• Meditate, relax, do something that makes you happy and puts your mind at ease.  Stay positive as much as possible - This is really important.  Don't let you present situation crush you.  Tomorrow is another day and it will get better.  Imagine yourself healing through the power of your mind and soul.  It is so important to keep a positive attitude.

• Join a support group or two or three.  Honestly discuss your situation, they way you feel and perhaps you may just find that you become a champion for helping others in that group too.  I know they have helped me and I have learned a lot from them.  They have learned a lot too.  It works both ways if you put in the effort.  

• Talk to your close friends, your partner.  Open those communication lines.  It helps.  Stay interactive with the world.  Your friends will help if you let them know you need it.  Stay connected!

 Well I think that's it for this post, I'm going to be creating another one right after this to discuss some very controversial research I've been doing just to keep things interesting.  Give me a couple of days and let's see what comments come from that.  Also I'm going to try and create a YouTube video and see if that works out for me/us. :)

Cheers and stay positive

 Please consider donating to my Go Fund Me Page, it helps financially to meet on going costs not being able to work and the costs that are associated with this disease.

You can find my Go Fund Me page here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/ricks-cancer-treatment-fundraiser