I'm strangely excited ... and a little apprehensive. I dutifully took my Dexamethasone (or ‘Dexa’) before bed last night, it did make my (now) habitual nightly (two or three usually) hot flushes hotter, but not to the sweating level which I had at the start of ADT; they wake me up, but I go straight back to sleep generally. I'm now eating breakfast and I've just taken my second batch of 'dexa' along with my Relugolix (ADT), Loratadine for allergies and various supplements. I'll be heading out to the hospital soon and I'll try and update as I go. Oh, and Cassidy (this my daughter, who's in Australia and reading this blog), I'm wearing 'Mr. Grumpy' as my Chemo T-shirt to remind me of you, xxx.
I’m underway! I arrived a little early, so I popped into the Fountain Centre at Royal Surrey to register; they are a charity offering support for cancer patients. A very nice lady made me a cup of tea while I filled in the form, so I sat and had my final dose of ‘Dexa’ along with a banana. I arrived at the Day Unit at 9:45am for a 10:00am kick-off, but as always they were ready to go so I went straight in. I’d been offered the option of cold capping, and I knew that I’d have to be chilled down first, so I wanted to get going.
Cold capping can help reduce the degree of hair loss from your head, not elsewhere. I’m not particularly precious about my hair, but the treatment was available, so I thought I’d give it a go. I now have a device on my head which has reduced my scalp temperature to about 2 DegC. The first 5-10 mins was a little painful, but now it’s absolutely fine. While cooling down, I’ve had my Zoledronic (or ‘Zoly’) administered. I’m a bit of a pin-cushion at the moment as the nurse had issues finding a suitable vein. To date I’ve always been cannulated in my elbow joint – for bloods, etc. – not possible for chemotherapy as a leak of the chemo drug might lead to joint damage. So, they had to find a vein in my lower arm / hand – I think the problem was a less experienced nurse, after two failed attempts a different nurse fitted the cannula.
‘Zoly’ now in, I’m fully ‘chilled’ and the lines flushed, here come the Docetaxel (or ‘Doce’). They’re going to start slowly and then up the rate. This is standard for a first cycle just to make sure there’s no immediate adverse reactions; now 10 mins in all good … ‘Doce’ all administered – 2 hrs, no problems with the full rate dosing and I had a custard cream (my favorite) and a coffee. A pharmacist popped along with my meds: I have my Daroluamide - which is the Androgen Receptor Signalling Inhibitor (ARSI), helps stopping the action of testosterone; Prednisolone and Domperidone for reducing nausea and vomiting; Omeprazole to help prevent inflammation; and, my next dose of Dexa for my next cycle.
I’m now waiting for the end of the cold capping and I’ll be good to go. So far, so good, no problems with administering the drugs, cold capping was no problem. Overall, I feel pretty good now, both emotionally and physically. I will be interested to see how things now unfold over the next week and how Desdemona has reacted to its first encounter with Doce.
