13. Cancer Diaries - Sprint Cycle

In the world of software delivery, project teams will often focus to produce an output of product on a cyclical basis. In other words, project teams work in sprints of activity. Sprints are a dedicated tranche of time where the team will focus on working on a particular set of tasks, with the aim to complete them within the time set, such as 2 weeks. 

I am now on the second phase of Chemo which is a third drug, being administered to me on a weekly basis. I now feel like I am in my own sprint cycle. Let me tell you how this is going. 

I have 12 sessions of this drug and I have already completed 7. The weekly sessions are helping to notch up the numbers but I do feel like a hamster on its wheel. 

This is my routine. Chemo happens on a Wednesday so I duly head to the hospital to get my fill of chemicals for the day. Wednesday is also known as going out for lunch day as I do get fed while I am there. I get presented a menu choice of a hot meal special of the day or regular options of jacket potatoes, panini's and sandwiches. There are pudding choices too but I tend not to partake. 

I get my pre-medications loaded into me which includes saline, anti-sickness, steroid and an anti-histamine which makes me very sleepy, before the Chemo is added on top and takes 1 hour to drip through. I settle into my chair and glaze my eyes over the film that I have loaded onto my Mac for the session. 

I've worked my way through the Oceans and Bourne series and watched Shaun of the Dead. I'm now watching the Daniel Craig series of Bond, with a 'prequel' of Layer Cake. I've seen all these films before, which is just as well as I doze my way through them all. 

Before each Chemo is administered I have my bloods taken and checked for their levels. If my levels are within the acceptable range then I can have my medicine. If they fall out, then I am declined and have to wait until they are restored. I was a healthy person before my Chemo began so my bloods were in tip-top condition but the treatment does weaken the body. 

Let me share an example, haemoglobin, also known as iron. I used to give blood many years ago and would watch my blood sink like a stone in the test which showed that I had a good level of iron in my blood. Indeed, just before I started treatment my iron level was nearly at the top of the scale. You could say I was Iron Man! The healthy range that iron is measured is from 115-155. Chemo treatment tends to suck iron out of the body so it's one of the markers that can get hit. In fact, in relation to Chemo the medical team extend the lower measure down to 100 as a starting point to give Cancer patients a fair chance of receiving their treatment. 

Here's a graph to show how my Iron levels have been steadily falling over my Chemo treatment. My starting point was 145 and my last measure was at 116 and my lowest was 111. These past few weeks I have changed my diet to embrace more red meat and green vegetables to help drag my numbers back up again just so I can keep within the good levels. It's multiple steak nights in our house during the week! Incidentally, vitamin C helps to release the iron in foods so I've been matching my food with apple juice instead of a red wine, (not that I can drink much alcohol right now).

Once the Chemo has been given I am released and allowed to go home again. My usual plan is to flop onto the sofa and continue to allow TV to wash over my eyes. I am keeping my appetite with this drug so I do treat myself to a late afternoon pudding like a chocolate eclair and later, manage a small dinner, often homemade pea soup. 

I don't always have the best of sleep on the Wednesday night, mostly due to the steroid and have been known to take 30 mins to read a book at 03:00 before settling into part 2 of a night's sleep. 

Surprisingly, even with lack of sleep, I feel quite buzzy on Thursdays and can be productive. Again, this is the steroid in my system keeping me up. By Friday it was worn off and I am in a full Chemo hangover. I am tired and my mood is low. It's a day for quiet activity, no big decisions, just simple methodic tasks, like invoicing.

Come Saturday and I am starting to come back up again from my Chemo fug and we usually try to do something and get out of the house for a drive and a change of scenery. By Sunday I have good energy levels and try to be more active. Yesterday, we took electric Lime bikes and cycled around Greenwich and Blackheath and a previous Sunday we even went kayaking in the Cotswolds with friends.

Monday and Tuesday's are my most productive work days. I try to cram as much as I can in these two days to complete tasks. My head is pretty good and I have ability for creativity to write, or to follow technical instructions without feeling overwhelmed. You'll notice that I've have also been my most sociable on these days with Community Group meetings, etc, as I have the best level of energy and can cope with people. I also draw energy from people too so social interactions are important to me. 

And then it's back to Wednesday, Groundhog day, and we start the cycle again. Ugh!

The side effects on this drug are lesser than the previous Chemo phase. My body is starting to recover from the first phase so I am seeing my hair grow again and my skin softness improve. Tiredness prevails so I continue to live in a feeling of constant jet lag. A new feature of this drug is a bloody nose. Chemo tends to make your nose run so you end up blowing it a lot. This has now extended to have bloody nose blows. The other new feature is my Chemo hangover on Fridays. It's almost clockwork, I'm absolutely fine for the rest of the week but Friday is a real low mood day. 

5 more to go and I'm done. I'm literally counting them down.