Tippy canoe and Ambien too!

Hello to all my friends, today is Sunday May 1^st my last day of rest before heading back to Dana-Farber tomorrow morning to start my 3^rd cycle of Chemotherapy.  After spending a week off in Florida, I feel rested and ready to resume my treatments.

Currently my health situation is as follows; 1^st and foremost, my taste buds came back over the past 2-weeks (Not sure just where they went?) Once I realized this, the 1^st thing I did was to run to the kitchen and make a Pepperoni, sausage and garlic pizza with gobs of cheese! Ah...to taste the finer things in life!

I'm experiencing three persistent side effects:

The 1^st side effect still is an unpredictable lower GI problem, while not cleared up completely, I’m now able to at least control my discomfort (my going and not going, that is) with the use of Colace and Metamucil, this is to help my train and all my packages arrive at the station On-Time! And Imodium for when I arrive at the station 10 times a day and each time I’m early (oh, and in a rush to unload all my packages! Get my drift…. If this continues you may want to consider buying some stock in Charmin.

The 2^nd is Insomnia; for this I’m recruiting the assistance of Dr Ambien and Mr. Lorazepam! The Ambien  knocks me out in about 15-20 minutes, and I sleep till 3-4am then in comes the Lorazepam and that carries me over till 6-7 am.

The 3^rd item, which seens to get worse every week, is the Neurologic side effects.  Just can’t shake this or get thru the day without experiencing these effects. I’m getting more light headed and dizzy every week. Whenever I get out of the car, walk briskly up a flight of stairs or stand up from a seated position quickly it takes all my strength not to faint/pass out and fall flat on my face. Everything goes gray, my head starts to spin my vision blurs my legs get wobbly and down I go, head down on the table and unable to get back up for 10-15 minutes.

Summary:  AKA…things I’ve learned…

·         You probably don’t want to be in the same bathroom line, before or after me! Buy Charmin stock!

·         No more Caffeinated coffee, tea or soda. But…Pizza and Italian foods are back! Red wine and alcohol are out, a glass of wine doesn't mix well with my medications.

Note: Although you can get a “DECAFFINATED” Venti, White Chocolate Cappuccino at Starbucks, it tastes like Milk of Magnesia...yuck…. Try Pepto-OhBismal with a shot of Jack Daniels.

I’ll end now with one last note, I want to thank Tony and Michelle for their hospitality and a wonderful traditional Italian dinner down in Sarasota Florida, we had a great time.

Well summer is almost here and I look forward to the day I can play golf again…hmm…  let me rephrase that (Too many of you know me), I'm looking forward to the day when I can learn how to actually "PLAY" Golf!  

So long for now…Chemo Ken!