Scanned and ready

It is now 24 hours since my last dose of the chemo-devil Xeloda and I feel much better already.  Breakfast tasted a little more like breakfast.  No nausea medicine is required because I'm experiencing no nausea.  Physical Therapy this morning followed by two days of nothing medical! (Knock on wood.)  On Friday I submit to my 6th dilation procedure; stretching out the scar tissue in my pseudo-esophagus one more time in hopes that it will stay open wide enough so starchy globs of bread or pasta won't get stuck.  My cough has subsided to a great degree and I think that has meant less stress on the anastomosis.

Yesterday's CT Scan pretty much burned up a whole day.  They had me taking some pre-medication early in the morning to counter-act the allergic reaction I would have to the contrast dye for my afternoon scan.  My brother-in-law, Bruce, picked me up at 10:45 a.m. for an 11:00 a.m. pre-scan "hydration".

Forearm track

The chemo-lounge was hopping when we got there and I was assigned Nurse Jackie.  Now I was a little hard on Nurse Jackie in a previous post because I caught her on her first training day of work and my first day of chemo.  Her initial I.V. jab in my arm fried a vein that a month later still shows up as a dark line on my forearm that still hurts when I lean on it.  This may be normal and not her fault at all but I used poetic license to enhance my story and cast her as a less-than-ideal nurse.  But anyone who knows me well, knows that I love a good forgiveness story (The act of true forgiveness is powerful medicine) so I relished the opportunity to give her another chance.  And besides, I now have a port so what could go wrong?  I wish I could say that she turned into Florence Nightingale but in fact she still seemed  to lack the experience of the other nurses I've had.  She was obviously super busy and we watched her zip back and forth to numerous other patients before she got to me.  She's a hard worker.  When she finally applied the needle to the port, she did not offer the numbing spray as all the others had done and it stung a little more than usual.  She apologized and said something about it twisting a little when she put it in.  I forgive her.  She works hard and can only get better.

Jackie also drew some blood from the port and a bit later gave me a report.  All numbers looked good except white cell count.  She said it is time to stay away from sick people and enforce the hand sanitizer regimen with visitors.

After absorbing saline for an hour and a half and taking my ant-allergy pre-meds, it was on to the St. Mary's Radiology department.  They make you swallow 2 bottles of the Barium contrast beverage first.  I'd tried the Mocha flavor the last time and thought this time I would work through the other flavors.  Berry smelled like strawberries and Apple smelled like apple cider.  Like the Mocha flavor, both Berry and Apple were not unpalatable but they are also not delicious.  Next time I try the only remaining flavor, Banana.  Again, since my stomach is so small I cheated by injecting a few hundred milliliters down my J-tube.

I had a new experience featuring my recent hair style change to chrome dome.  The admitting nurses always ask for your birthday and when I gave her mine, she did kind of a double take.  I asked her what was up and she replied, "I thought you seemed much younger than that."  Without the ring of hair and the grey highlights, a bald man has the advantage of being more ageless.

Despite the pre-meds, I was still a little nervous about getting the activator injection while lying in the CT scanner.  My reaction was a bit milder but I still had one.  I got a bad taste in my mouth and I immediately had the urge to sneeze, which I held to the end of the scan and then sneezed 3 times.  They gave me some oral Benedryl afterwards to supplement the oral Benedryl they gave me an hour before.  This pretty much wiped me out for the rest of the day.  I was in a sleepy but non-sleeping funk.

They did a "double scan" of the liver so we'll know if that little spot is growing or receding. I won't know the results until Friday when I meet again with Doctor Scott.  I don't know whether I'll pick up another round of chemo on Monday or whether they'll give me a break or maybe try something else.
Until then, I'm going to enjoy lack of medicine for a couple days.