 |
| Register | Login | |||||
 |
Main
| Memberlist
| Active users
| ACS
| Commons
| Calendar
| Online users Ranks | FAQ | Color Chart | Photo album | IRC Chat |
|
| | ||
|
| Register | Login | |||||
|
Main
| Memberlist
| Active users
| ACS
| Commons
| Calendar
| Online users Ranks | FAQ | Color Chart | Photo album | IRC Chat |
|
| | ||
| 0 user currently in Lost Section. |
| Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - Lost Section - W00t! I'm home! |
 |  |  |
| Add to favorites | "RSS" Feed | Next newer thread | Next older thread |
| User | Post | ||
Emptyeye Real American Level: 67 Posts: 985/2273 EXP: 2488421 For next: 104451 Since: 05-24-04 From: I DUNNOOOOOOOO!! Since last post: 9 hours Last activity: 4 hours |
| ||
| (This will be a long, fairly incoherent post, you have been warned...) Okay, for those of you who don't know, over the last several months, I've been undergoing treatment for T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma (In layman's terms, cancer in my chest). Today, I came home from treatment for what will hopefully be the final time. This last cycle was a little unusual. Indeed, the life of a cancer patient in general is a little unusual; for most of you, this is November 28th, or 29th depending on where in the world you live. For me, today is "Day +12", which basically means it's been 12 days since I got my stem cells back following my last cycle of chemo. Now, you may wonder what the hell stem cells have to do with chemotherapy. And the answer, honestly, is "not much, at least not directly." What happened, as briefly as I can make it, is that, following my normal chemo regimen--a regimen known as Hyper-CVAD--the clinic down at Yale New Haven Hospital (In Connecticut) collected a bunch of my stem cells. Then, I got one last dose of chemo known as BEAM (Each letter stands for a different drug, though besides A for Aricee I can't tell you what they are), where I'd go down to the clinic in the morning for 3-4 hours of chemo, and at night a nurse would come to my house and give me 3-4 more hours (I slept through most of this). At the end of the chemo cycle, on "Day 0", I got my stem cells back to help speed along the process of remaking my immune system, which the BEAM pretty much destroyed (The normal human has between 5000-10000 white blood cells. There were several days when I had about 100, and one day when I had literally just about ZERO). Surprisingly, recovery from this high-dose chemo was generally not as bad as the last few Hyper-CVAD treatments I received, where I basically didn't eat for five days and spent several of those days throwing up. Except for one particularly bad day, day +7, my biggest problem was being tired. One semi-bad part was that I spent just about the past two weeks in a hotel five minutes away from the hospital (It's about a forty-five minute ride to the hospital from my house), in case something went wrong. It was actually a pretty nice room, though--two beds, full kitchen, fairly large, etc. Nonetheless, I'm definitely glad to finally be home, and hopefully to have beaten this stupid thing. And that's that. |
|||
Karadur Fire Snake  Level: 48  Posts: 200/1192 EXP: 786444 For next: 37099 Since: 11-02-04 From: Chatham, Ontario, Canada Since last post: 1 day Last activity: 15 hours |
| ||
Well, I didn't know you, or know that you had cancer in the first place  , but it's good to hear you're back at home and getting better  I don't know much about any type of cancer, besides the fact that it's usually a nasty disease to have  I think it would be quite scary to have less than 100 white blood cells in your body, regardless of whether it was only for a day or not  You'd have to be very careful doing anything  It sounds like you had some pretty rough times during your treatment, but anything of that sort would have to be better than losing your life, I'd thinkOnce again, it's good to hear you're getting better now  Hopefully you keep getting better. |
|||
|
DarkSlaya POOOOOOOOOOOORN! Level: 88 Posts: 2670/4249 EXP: 6409254 For next: 241410 Since: 05-16-04 From: Montreal, Quebec, Canada Since last post: 8 hours Last activity: 5 hours |
| ||
| It's relieving to hear that. You won because you didn't give up. You, boy, should be proud of yourself. | |||
Sabishii Koopa Level: 17 Posts: 11/103 EXP: 24001 For next: 742 Since: 05-24-04 From: Cumming, Georgia Since last post: 230 days Last activity: 213 days |
| ||
| Sounds like a really scary experience, glad it's hopefully over for you though. DarkSlaya's right, you should be proud of yourself. Can't say I know you, but it's always good to have someone come back, especially from something like that.  |
|||
Dark Vampriel Lynel "Life is just a dream on the way to death." Level: 57  Posts: 572/1658 EXP: 1400355 For next: 85573 Since: 08-29-04 From: Somewhere..... Since last post: 2 hours Last activity: 4 min. |
| ||
| Wow glad that it seems that you have won and are glad to be home. (I know I would be. ) Can't say that I know you that well and I've read around where there was mention that you have cancer. It's good to hear that you might be over it to say the least. |
|||
Jarukoth  IRRATIONAL EXUBERENCE!!1! Level: 79  Posts: 2114/3194 EXP: 4402011 For next: 177456 Since: 03-17-04 From: New Jersey, U.S.A. Shoes: Yes. Since last post: 8 days Last activity: 1 day |
| ||
| Not everyone can say that they've done what you did. Congratulations, and here's to your continued good health! | |||
|
Emptyeye Real American Level: 67 Posts: 993/2273 EXP: 2488421 For next: 104451 Since: 05-24-04 From: I DUNNOOOOOOOO!! Since last post: 9 hours Last activity: 4 hours |
| ||
| Karadur: As far as the white cells go, yes and no. While it's true that certain additional precautions have to be taken--mainly in regards to eating and drinking; you can't eat out or drink tap water when your white count is that low (The former because you can't be sure that restaurant employees are doing what they're supposed to be doing in terms of hygiene whilst handling food, the latter I presume because tap water just isn't very clean)--but it's not like I was constantly sterilizing the hotel room while walking around in a germ-proof bubble or anything. If nothing else, oncologists have this down to, well, a science, where they can pretty much predict when and how far your counts will crash from day to day. DarkSlaya: Believe me, there were days I wanted to give up, particularly early on. Someone here (I think it was here) posted earlier about how I handled this with such dignity...it wasn't so much that I had dignity as I chose to not make my undignified moments--and I think all cancer patients have these--public. Sabishii, Dark Vampriel and Jarukoth: Thanks for the well wishes...I'm definitely glad to be home and for the most part done with this thing. |
|||
|
Sabishii Koopa Level: 17 Posts: 14/103 EXP: 24001 For next: 742 Since: 05-24-04 From: Cumming, Georgia Since last post: 230 days Last activity: 213 days |
| ||
| As for dignity, everyone has their slips. All that matters is that it's pretty much over and you can relax a bit. Definitely a nice thing that doctors know as much as they do about it though. I know several people who have survived it simply for the fact that, despite not being perfect, we know a lot about cancers and how to treat them. |
|||
Ran-chan Moldorm eek, when are they going to stop growing... Level: 143  Posts: 5527/12781 EXP: 35293588 For next: 538220 Since: 03-15-04 From: Nerima District, Tokyo - Japan Since last post: 12 hours Last activity: 12 hours |
| ||
| Hey, that | |||
|
Kwan Doesn't have a valid sized userpic. ||bass will be pissed :(((((((( Level: 50  Posts: 925/1137 EXP: 937111 For next: 10206 Since: 03-15-04 From: Durkadurkastan! Since last post: 22 days Last activity: 2 days |
| ||
Originally posted by Emptyeye Please just read for once, Trapster? Anyway, I was wondering how you were getting on, and it seems you're getting well now, nice to hear. I read Lance Armstrong's book, he didn't enjoy his chemo experience due to mostly the food/vomiting thing. How did you cope with the other aspects like losing your hair, and were the drugs painful, or was it just the side effects? |
|||
kiwibonga Double metal axe Level: 27  Posts: 244/266 EXP: 106040 For next: 10119 Since: 03-15-04 From: Montreal, QC, Canada Since last post: 126 days Last activity: 3 days |
| ||
That's awesome  I'm glad you're ok, hope you can soon put all this stuff behind you! |
|||
|
Emptyeye Real American Level: 67 Posts: 1002/2273 EXP: 2488421 For next: 104451 Since: 05-24-04 From: I DUNNOOOOOOOO!! Since last post: 9 hours Last activity: 4 hours |
| ||
| Sepho: Well, the main thing I didn't like was the vomitting thing. As far as the rest of the side effects, I didn't care so much about losing my hair. You can actually see in the Acmlm photo album a picture of me with my hair about as thin as it got before I shaved it off (Contrary to popular belief, chemo usually DOESN'T leave you completely bald). Before that, I wore my hair really short anyway (And actually completely shaved it off once), so that wasn't a big deal. Probably the most annoying part of it was I lost hair pretty much everywhere ( ), including my eyebrows and eyelashes. The loss of eyelashes in particular make my eyes feel weird when I close and open them, and I also seem to tear up more now. The drugs themselves didn't really "hurt", per se. What did suck was my first time in the hospital (10 days), before they put a portacath in me (I basically have a bump in my chest now. What it is is a device where, if they need to draw blood or put drugs or fluid into me, they basically do it through my chest instead of a vein in my arm. It sounds painful, but in the long run is much healthier for my body), I was constantly being poked and prodded with various needles. By the time I finally got out, my stomach was completely black and blue because I had been needled so many times (If I remember right, they were monitoring my insulin, and it was pretty much always not normal, though I can't remember in which direction. So they gave me that particular shot through my stomach). Beyond the first treatment, I pretty much slept for the five day spans I was getting treatment. Or tried to; one of the worst parts was the "feeling tired and not being able to sleep during the day" part..probably even worse than being hungry and not being able to eat. Oh yeah, and the first time in the hospital I had weird semi-dreams (I was in that weird state where you're not "awake" yet not quite entirely asleep either) because they pumped me full of steroids (I R BARRY BONDS LOLZ!!!). So yeah, that's my experience. Thanks for the well wishes Kiwi. Hmm. 9 more days until 200, I think I have a pretty good idea for a custom title. |
|||
|
Toxic in a sublime state of mind Level: 75  Posts: 2158/2857 EXP: 3732709 For next: 94195 Since: 03-15-04 Since last post: 3 days Last activity: 8 hours |
| ||
| Glad to see you back, it's really awesome actually. |
|||
Someguy Buzzy Beetle It seems as though the girl you've fallen for is also a pyromaniac. Level: 32  Posts: 128/397 EXP: 193329 For next: 13113 Since: 03-15-04 From: I'm proud to be an American... I think... Since last post: 1 day Last activity: 5 hours |
| ||
| I rarely look at threads here because usually it's about how family members die and losing girlfriends and stuff, so I never expected to see something such as someone (hopefully) beating a cancer. I hope that it truely is all gone, and that you don't have to go through any more of that stuff.... I myself just cringe when getting a shot, not to mention 50 or so in your stomache along with all the other stuff, but it's all in the past hopefully. Say, don't they have some kind of ribbon you get to wear now, or is that only for breast cancer? Anyone like you who goes through that kind of stuff deserves something! |
| Add to favorites | "RSS" Feed | Next newer thread | Next older thread |
| Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - Lost Section - W00t! I'm home! |
| | |
