Can I possibly be looking forward to Chemo? Well, yeah. Mainly because the chemo should start to reduce the mass in my stomach immediately, since it is made up of the exact type of cells the chemo will be attacking.
Other positive thoughts -
Doctors are continually improving the chemo drugs and the counter drugs to maximize kill power and
minimize nausea. The Ms noticed a huge difference in how she felt the first time v. the second time going through chemo. People who went through chemo back in the 70s remember feeling really lousy almost all the time. Not so much now. Since I’m already feeling pretty funky, I don’t anticipate a huge change. We’ll see.
The disease of lymphoma itself can make chemo feel less creepy psychologically. What I mean is - most cancer patients have a particular body part that has cancer. It can be frustrating to these folks to think of weird chemicals going through their whole bodies just so they can attack the cancer cells in the one small area. In my case, chemo going through the whole body is a good thing, because your lymph system goes through your whole body. I am envisioning myself lying on the couch, all hooked up, and thinking, “go, you little muthafuggers, kill those cells.”
love this! i think these kinds of positive images are great medicine--along with the m**rf**ers, of course.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Doing my best.
DeleteI may have had a different kind of chemo, as I had a cancer of the tongue, but it was the lymph nodes that were the tipoff as the cancer had spread to them. I had a choice of two drugs. The first had (my internet research showed, a 2% mortality rate, the other had 100% incidence of some damage to hearing. I opted to hear a bit less. I have to say that my doctors gave me a ton of anti nausea drugs, which I only used one type of and that one only a couple of days. The only effect I felt from the chemo was hiccups, and the anti-nausea drug stopped them. Good thing too because you can only drink so many glasses of water, or hold your breath for so long, and besides using the folk remedies usually ended up with the hiccups coming back in an hour or two. Good luck, and make judicious use of your pills, but when you need them, take them. _ED
ReplyDeleteThanks, ED. That's encouraging to hear. You're right, though. Could be totally different drugs.
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