josigirl13's Cancer Blog

November 2, 2007

As many of you know I have started round 5 of 6 rounds of chemo. I was admimtted to the hospital on halloween (which is okay as I am a halloween humbug) and will likely be here until monday, is that the 5th? Anyway, this round is Cytarabine and Etoposide. Last time I had this chemo was in August, and as some of you may remember it was a nightmare. I broke out in a rash on the third day of treatment that covered my entire body and lasted a good 10 days. But the worst part of the chemo is that it caused me to have mouth sores. These covered my entire mouth and were even in my throat, making it very painful to swallow. This time I have taken some preventative measures. I had three days of treatment with a drug called Kepivance that is supposed to prevent mouth sores, or at least make them less severe. Of course, I am allergic to Kepivance, and I broke out in a minor rash from having that treatment. But, I figure better a rash than mouth sores. I am hoping not to be in the hospital as long as I was in August, which was a total of about 3 weeks minus the 24 hours I was home where I basically collapsed from having no white blood cells to speak of. In any case, I am starting day 3 of 4 of my treatments today and am in good shape. My nurses have been relatively good, although I am missing Robin, my favorite, who I have not seen yet. My girls came by last night for our Thursday night Grey’s Anatomy viewing party, so that was fun! It really lifted my spirits. My aunt Suzanne is here this week, in ultra task-master mode, getting things done and keeping the doctors and nurses on their toes! Dad will be in town next weekend, and hopefully Joanna the following weekend, so I should be pretty booked up until Thanksgiving.
I hope all of you are doing well, I have been enjoying your emails, packages, CD’s, books, magazines, etc. that many of you have sent. Peace, love, and good health!
Josi

Posted on November 2, 2007 at 10:41:23 AM by Josiane Dixon ( Round 5, 2 comments)