It’s mid-morning and here I am, another relatively sleepless night, which is OK because I think from now on I’m going to sleep when I want and watch the late shows all night. First off I will give you the me update, I have started my “ampho-terrible” drug. And I must say it is appropriately named, but after a little jockeying the Doc’s have managed to control most of my reactions to it, however they do this with wild combinations of other drugs which pretty much leave me wondering who I am and where I come from. This state is most difficult to describe as I am not in any real pain it is literally like I don’t know who’s body I’m in. The new combination consists of 4 drugs that I receive before the ampho and some of the same drugs that I receive half way in, I will explain the process.
Start: I receive 500 ml of saline over 2 hours to “pre-soak” my kidneys as the ampho is especially hard on the kidneys, this means I am hooked up to a pole and pump, similar to when I was receiving chemo.
Second: Around 1 hour into my pre-soak I begin my pre-meds, which consist of 4 different drugs, this is the beginning of my personality change. This process lasts about an hour.
Ampho Time: Then I receive the beloved Ampho-Terrible, 500 ml over 2 hours, during which time I usually feel pretty crappy and I have some sort of reaction, which as I mentioned have gotten a lot better since the first few times. The core of the reaction involves the “shakes” or rygers, which see you shake relatively uncontrollably for anywhere from 10-35 minutes, at varying levels of intensity. Not a real pleasurable experience but as far as the past 2 weeks have gone it’s not the worst, not the best, but definitely not the worst.
The Post-Soak: This usually brings us over 4 hours into the daily process, including transition times and all. Now we start the post-soak, which again consists of 500 ml of saline, this time intended to flush my kidneys and ultimately my body. During this phase I often drink as much liquid as possible and thus end up in the bathroom every hour or less, of course that all depends on the days reactions and how I am feeling, I have gone through the whole process without the slightest notion of moving from my bed.
Co-ordinated in there is often a whole other mix of blood products, other med’s and things, my Hickman Catheter, the tube in my chest, has been working over time lately, hopefully just a few more days and it will get a rest from all these drugs. I think my body is looking forward to that rest as well.
There you have a little look into one piece of my day that has become routine over the past 4-5 days, I undergo this process everyday with varying levels of success, and hopefully I will only have a few more days of the terrible stuff. There is no word of when I’ll get my walking papers but my white cells have started to come up nicely, unfortunately no Neutrophils which are the most important, but it is only a matter of time.
I am outta here for the day, I’ll keep you posted as always, thanks for writing those that do and you’ll hear from me in the near future.
Geoff
#4