After Chemo Cycle Two

August 31

This has been a rough month. After the first month, I started feeling better when the seven days of chemo ended and was not too bad by the time cycle two started. This month was not like that at all. At the end of the chemo days, I was feeling worse and worse - major fatigue, along with mouth sores, some head aches, etc. It turned out that my haemoglobin was so low. Normal haemoglobin is 130 or higher, and for anemia, it's usual to get blood transfusions when your level dips below 80 or 90. In my case, it was at 60. So I had two units of whole blood last week, which raised the level to the mid 70s. This week I had two more units, so I should be slightly more energetic. In fact, though I feel a bit better mentally, I'm still pretty tired physically, thoughnot as bad as beofre the transfusions.

I also saw my doctor this week, and we've decided to postpone cycle three by a week to give me a bit more recovery time. It was supposed to start after Labour Day, but will now start the following Monday. Four weeks after that, I'll have another bone marrow biopsy to determine the progress of the chemo, and then we'll determine next courses of action - more cycles of same chemo, or something else. It looks like the bone marrow transplant is still several months away.