Round 4, here I come!

*This is a picture of my best friend (in the whole wide world) Mabel and me. We spent all of yesterday together just hanging out...good times. Can't wait for this year's football season to start! We already have season tickets (hoping I can go). Go bears!!


I'm getting admitted into the hospital today at 2:30pm. Got my bags all packed and I'm ready to go. I feel very healthy so I'm hoping that I can swoop in and swoop out of the hospital. Ideally I would only stay for 5 days, but something might come up (e.g. fever, infection, pneumonia, etc.) that would keep me in the hospital. I stayed an extra 6 days during Round 3 because of a skin infection.

The chemo regimen I'm on is called the "1-3-5" of High-dose Ara-C (aka Cytarabine). Basically I get chemo on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th day I'm in the hospital. More specifically, this means:
Step 1. Start first bag of chemo 1 "Dose 1" (each bag runs for 3 hrs)
Step 2. 12 hours after Dose 1 began, start Dose 2
Step 3. 36 hours after Dose 2 began, start Dose 3
Step 4. 12 hours after Dose 3 began, start Dose 4
Step 5. 36 hours after Does 4 began, start Dose 5
Step 6. 12 hours after Does 6 began, start Dose 6

Example:
1. Mon, 8/6/07 start Dose 1 at 7am, ends at 10am
2. Mon, 8/6/07 start Dose 2 at 7pm, ends at 10pm
*Tue, 8/7/07 - no chemo
3. Wed, 8/8/07 start Dose 3 at 7am, ends at 10am
4. Wed, 8/8/07 start Dose 4 at 7pm, ends at 10pm
*Thur, 8/9/07 - no chemo
5. Fri, 8/10/07 start Dose 5 at 7am, ends at 10am
6. Fri, 8/10/07 start Dose 6 at 7pm, ends at 10pm

Patients can get very nauseous or tired from the chemo, but luckily I have not had any real side effects from the chemo drugs (knock on wood). Plus you get a lot of "pre-meds" which are medicines that you take before you start chemo to prevent any side effects. You also receive eye drops every 6 hours to protect your eyes from infection. Ara-C which can leak out of the tear ducts in your eyes and cause an eye infection called conjunctivitis. I basically can't wear contacts lenses and I avoid rubbing my eyes during this period.

For me, the toughest thing about getting chemo is the timing of each dose. If you start your 1st chemo bag at 3pm in the afternoon, that means your next one will be at 3am. It is hard to get rest when your nurse is coming in and out during the middle of the night. I learned the hard way during Round 2 when my chemo started at 4am. It is important to ask your nurse to set the treatment on a reasonable schedule. I hope this time we can start at 7pm tonight.

If you don't experience any side effects, chemo is fairly easy...it's the weeks after the chemo that are tough.

Wish me luck! I hope (Che)Mo gives Leuk a good beating this round!