Cycle 2 Has Begun, Tumor Marker Update, & My Chin

Cycle 2

So, today we start cycle two with the big week of five straight days of treatment.  The good news is that our doctor was kind enough to give me a third anti-nausea drug that can be used if the first two drugs don’t quite cut it.  It’s good to know that there is another option if/when the nausea gets to gnarly.   

This time around I’m going to do my best to stay ahead of the nausea.  I started the anti-nausea medication before treatment this morning and will set alarms to make sure that I stay on schedule.  I think that should help quite a bit.  

Tumor Markers

We received promising news in regard to my tumor markers.  My tumor marker ‘score’ dropped from 1,099 (before treatment) to 375.  That is a pretty big change and when partnering that news with the fact that I haven’t had any nerve pain since the first day of Cycle 1, it is very encouraging.  I might even say that it makes these big weeks of chemo worth it!

My Chin

Say hello to my new look.  I ended up shaving my beard and hair on Friday evening.  My hair was falling out so quickly that my pillow would be covered in hair when I got up in the morning.  I even found that showers were stressful because my hands would be covered with hair after applying shampoo and you could see hair all over the floor of the shower.  Even though I knew why it was happening and that it was going to happen, I didn’t want to deal with it anymore.  It was disturbing.   

So, I have a mustache that will hang around until it starts to thin out.  The shaved head doesn’t bother me but this is the first time that I’ve seen my chin since junior year of high school and the first time that I haven’t had a full beard since around 2007 or so.  I’m not quite comfortable with it yet but I’m sure that I’ll get used to it.