Howdy ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to another addition of “let’s get an update on the cancer guy!”

Hah. How funny would it be if that was a talk show, and I could actually have an announcer say “And now, your host, CANCER GUY!”. I hope I’m not the only one that finds that funny.

Anyway, on this lovely Monday, I figured I’d give everybody some updates on the whole deal going down.

Them Blood Numbers

So far my hemoglobin and platelet counts are holding pretty steady. 10.0ish and 120,000ish respectively. This doesn’t really mean much, other than that I haven’t needed to get any transfusions while I’ve been here. Magnesium once, and magnesium and potassium are coming later today. My white blood cells spiked up to 5 at one point yesterday, but dropped back down to 3.9 today. All normal stuff. My numbers shouldn’t really plummet until next week, probably around Wednesday-Friday or so.

Discharge

It’s now been confirmed that, barring any unexpected things, I’m getting discharged tomorrow afternoon. So, yay for that! They also informed me that I’ll be coming back on Wednesday (or I have the option to go to my primary care doctor up in CT) for a shot of Neulasta. Neulasta does the same stuff as Neupogen, the shot that I was given at the end of the last round of chemo’s hospital stay. It’s a growth stimulant for neutrophils, the things that fight off bacterial infections.

It’s also the thing that causes bone pain.

But hopefully this means my time on restricted diet and restricted outdoors-things will be limited this time around. I mean, I’ll do whatever they tell me for however long they tell me, but I’d really like to be able to be out and with friends outside my apartment while I’m recovering. As much as I can enjoy being a lazy bum after a full year of lifting and so many months of training, I’m definitely starting to get the gym itch again.

The Chemo

I still seem to be tolerating the chemo surprisingly well. I’m not particularly tired from it (or at least, not any more tired than I’d expect due to conditions in the hospital, which I’ll explain). I’ve gotten a few little brushes with nausea, but only once was enough that I actually asked for something. Most of the time, my stomach just kinda feels a little weird for 20-30 minutes, and then it goes away. So far, I’ve done 4 of the 6 doses that I came in for, with dose 5 coming tonight, and dose 6 coming tomorrow morning before I get discharged.

Just like last time, it seems like the most annoying part about the actual dosing of chemo (aside from being hooked up for 9+ hours at a time) is actually bathroom related. I don’t know how to properly convey this, but peeing 200 ounces of fluid in less than a day is a WHOLE LOT OF FLUID. Like wow, so many fluids. Seriously, wow. It’s too many, even.

But if that’s the worst that I get from this round, I’ll take it, and with a smile on my face. Well maybe not a smile, because just typing these sentences out is giving me bladder pain.

That Situation I Mentioned

No not this one.

The only issue, really, with the stay has been, yet again, roommate related. I can’t seem to get any luck in this regard. It’s one of those things where you feel bad for the people, you just wish you didn’t also have to deal with their stuff.

The first roommate I had was a little old dude from somewhere in Asia. Despite studying the area in college, and generally being interested in the culture, I wasn’t able to work out where he was from. Not only that, they didn’t have someone on staff that spoke his language, and they had to get someone that spoke Mandarin to haltingly translate things, because that was the closest they could get to his language. Now, he was fine, he didn’t really have major issues, he was on his 7th round of chemo for his lymphoma, and honestly, he was quiet, respectful, and a model roommate.

His wife, however, brought him some of the stinkiest food I have ever smelled in my entire life. Like, unbelievably pungent. When we arrived, we honestly thought that someone had soiled themselves in the room. It was apparently the soup he had just eaten.

He was discharged on Sunday, and I immediately got a new roommate. I was suddenly very guilty about my last roommate, because this one showed up with like, half the entourage I was rolling with last month, and it was pretty annoying, haha. That’s why this time around, I bring my visitors to the lounge.

But anyway, this poor old dude has had a cough for a year. Literally. The same cough, as he’s dealing with lymphoma, for a full year.

Can you imagine? I would pretty much go insane.

So as much as my heart breaks for the guy, am I allowed to say that I just don’t want to be sleeping in the same room as the guy? It sounds like he’s coughing up a lung every minute or so. Plus, he had a fever, and they had to bring in a refrigerated blanket machine thing into the room at 1:30 am. Brutal. I barely sleep as it is, so getting woken up constantly just makes me incapable of getting any rest at all.

Ah well, I have tomorrow afternoon to look forward to, getting back to my comfy bed, and getting rid of the last bit of my hair.

Pictures to follow!