Todd's Journey

Well, we expected it to happen. The side effects of the Steroids are now starting to pop up.

My face and mid section is now slightly looking a bit more bloated with water weight. It's not too bad at this point, but may get worse before it gets better.

My blood glucose has shot up to very high levels now, although I have been managing it fairly well at keeping it down with the use of insulin adjustments.

My sleep is slightly more challenging as the Steroids does cause some sleep disruption, I have moved to taking the Steroids first thing in the morning so that is kind of wears off by night time.

All of these side effects are temporary, and will return to normal following the end of the steroid treatment.

For the time being, I can live with the side effects as it's now showing a healing of my kidneys and my creatinine leves are coming down. That's the most important effect from the steroids.

But, I just couldn't avoid the negative effects of the Steroids, no matter how hard I tried. :o)

Had my first immunotherapy session today. Almost made it through the whole session, but unfortunately had a reaction with 8 minutes to go. I began shaking significantly for almost 20 minutes. They managed to get that under control by administering large doses of Benadryl, and a steroid. The shaking did subside and i did finish the remainder of my immunotherapy session with no further incident.

The ER doctor and Pharmacist at the Hospital said the the shaking can be expeccted when my immune system is in 'overdrive' from the therapy drug. They will give me the benadryl and steroid prior to the immuno drug next session in hopes to prevent the shaking from occurring again.

Unfortunately the Benadryl dosing and steroid made me very tired and weak again. I had to leave the hospital in a wheelchair, and when I got home, my legs collapsed just upon entering the house. Jamie helped support me to the floor and then we waiting there for about 5 minutes until I had enough strength in my legs to get and up make it to the couch. My strength returned in the afternoon.

As for the bladder update, I am still urinating very frequently but the time in between needing to urinate is slowly getting longer. The pain in urination is also getting better, with less stinging and burning now. I suspect things are getting better, but it sure is a slow process. The good news is I am peeing on my own, and my urine is quite clear.

That's the update for now. Take care everyone. Talk to you again soon, and I'll try and do a video blog update soon.

Procedure went well this morning. The nephrostomy tubes were removed, and stents were inserted. They seem to be working fine so far, and I seem to be slowly getting back to normal urination.

I do have a bit of pain right now but that is irritation caused by the catheter that was temporarily in place.

The pain should get better over the next few days.

An early Christmas gift arrived for us today.

My final chemo is complete. I received my very last dose of Gemcitabine today, along with the help of my newest best friend, "Annie".

When done, I rang the bell, and had a piece of cake.

I would post the video, but it makes me look too fat, so I am not going to. I know it's all in the eye of the beholder, but I am particular about my cancer weight gain and do not want to post it right now.

The next big step will be the scans (next Wednesday) followed by the results the week after.

Thanks to everyone at the Winchester Cancer Chemo unit, and all my nurses (Andrea, Jackie, Callie and Sarah)

Todd's Journey - Chapter 12

Update to the journey

I had a new support friend today join me for Chemo. Her name was Annie. She was wonderful.!