Chemo update

I really feel like this regimen is working.  The poking pains in my liver region have subsided and my "tumor marker" blood tests are heading in a downward direction.  I seem to have a pattern of a bad week (when the chemo is administered) followed by a good week in terms of nausea and temperature sensitivity but neither symptom has been too terrible.  So I would say the glass is half full.  The temperature sensitivity, it turns out, seems only to be for cold.  Ice water or any chilled food or beverage triggers a "pins and needles" sensation on my tongue and throat but it is short lived and fairly tolerable.  Still, I'm staying away from ice cream during week one.  The same sensation is felt in my fingers when I reach into the refrigerator or freezer.  So glad that West Michigan temperatures are finally spring-like.

I'm not sure that this is related to chemo or not but I am experiencing an uptick in what I am being told are migraines; specifically a rare type called Hemiplegic Migraine.  The good news is that I am not getting much of the debilitating headache side of the symptoms; a few pangs at most.  But I am getting the visual aura effect where I see bright flashes and a jaggy, crescent shaped distortion in my vision.  At other times it manifests as numbness on my left side or blind spots.  Yesterday for a couple hours my left peripheral vision disappeared.  It happened to come on while driving and could not see the on-coming lane of traffic without physically turning my head 90 degrees to the left. This morning, briefly the vision just below center focus disappeared.  I could read a line of type but not anticipate the next line.  A couple weeks ago it was the center focus so I could not see faces or read anything.  Very strange!  But the effect fades away and everything is normal again.  I'm sort of old to be experiencing migraines for the first time in my life but there are stranger things.

My teaching job ends in a couple of weeks and I have a ton of work to do to finish up.  It will be a bit of a relief and I hope I will be freed up to do a bit of travel during my good week.  Abby just moved to Ithaca, New York this week for a new start so perhaps a drive to the Finger Lakes region is in my near future.

Abby with packed car and bicycle attached to trunk, ready to embark.