1/8 Chemotherapy

After first round of chemotherapy...it got smaller already!

I got back from hospital just a few hours ago, and the good news is that I don't have to go back into hospitalization anymore!!! From now on, all the treatments will be done as an outpatient. The idea of hospitalization this week was to determine the kind of side effects I might experience.

I couldn't go to sleep the night before, simply scared of the start of chemotherapy. I was distressed and frightened about losing my current body, by injecting all these drugs. To kill my lymphoma, I will be harming my other body parts as a payback. I cried for about two hours, then fell asleep. I felt fresh the next morning, thinking that crying was necessary for me to prepare mentally.

The first round of chemotherapy started at 7:00am on 7/24, with delivering anti-nausea drug through IV. Around  10:30am my doctor came and started inserting drug in the order of the name (A -> B-> D -> V). I didn't experience that much of a pain on vein that was expected from drug D. The last drug, V pretty much caused all the side effects I had later in the day and rest of the week---nausea, upset stomach, constipation, and mouth/tongue ache. The second and the third day was the worst---I couldn't eat, and I only felt better when I was laying down on the bed on my side. I lost 2 kg this week. I need to gain the weight back :(

The IVs were removed by the night of the second day. On the fourth day I felt somewhat better so I decided to go to the hospital shop to buy something. My room was located on the 10th floor, and I decided to go down by stairs, hoping to move my body a little bit. I went back up by elevator, but by the time I got back to my room my legs were shaking! Today, my legs are sore! I realized that my muscles atrophied really quickly. Today I'm determined to do light exercise everyday, at least 1 hour everyday.

Amazingly, my lymphoma shrunk a lot from the first round of chemotherapy. According to the head doctor of the Department of Hematology, Dr. Chiba, my swollen lymphnodes were stuck together, but now they are separated due to shrinkage. I got to meet Dr. Chiba on his once a week so-called "Professor's hospital rounds" (教授回診) where the head doctor of the department walk around to see patients with twenty other people, who are students and associate professors from his department. If any of you have seen the Japanese drama called The White Tower (白い巨塔), it was just like that. It represented the hierarchy in the world of physicians in Japan.

Surprisingly, my white blood cell count is really low already (~2900 on the fourth day (yesterday), where on average people have 4000~6000), so I need to be really careful about infection. Now I wear a mask at home, plan to not go out until my next visit, and need to make sure that my parents wash their hands and gaggle when they come home. My goal is to gain the weight and strength back before the next round of chemo, which is scheduled on 8/9.