I finished the first half of my 3rd cycle of 4 ABVD treatments this past Thursday 01/0302012.
I have a blood test every week, and my CBC's have always been good, and my weight hasn't changed at all during treatment. With the last meeting with my doctor: "your blood counts are sky high!" Which is good, if my blood counts are low they have to modify treatment, if it's too low, then treatment has to be postponed, which isn't good. It also means I won't be feeling too lousy in general.
In general though, I've been extremely lucky with side effects, as everyone reacts differently to the same drugs, I've dodged the major afflictions, mine are:
Fatigue: which is the worst of the bunch, and lasts about 4 days starting a day and a half after treatment, and needs about 3 days to slowly get better. I'm not used to being in so much and sleeping this much, it's a little off putting, but the time passes quickly and it's easy to remedy: sleep.
Minor nausea: feel full easily, eat smaller meals, more often takes care of it. Passes with the fatigue. I was prescribed 3 heavy anti nausea meds, with 3 refills of each. I have hardly used 2 of them, and the last one is more for sleep, and it's about 1/4, because:
Insomnia: Yeah, fatigue AND insomnia. There isn't too much over lap though. On my good week is usually when it happens. Being up at 4 am, and walking up at noon hasn't happened since my college days (and was a bit more fun).
Acid reflux: this is the new side effect, I've never really had this before in general. Doesn't happen very often, and usually when I'm asleep. Easy to remedy: don't eat anything to greasy or spicy a few hours before bed. Tums is also nice.
Jaw pain: not as bad now as my very first treatment. Feels like I've been gnawing on wood all day.
Hair loss: "meh" sums that up, in the grand scheme of it all, that's pretty minor. The only hair I've lost is my head hair and facial hair. Eye brows and eye lashes aren't effected. I've lost about 90% ish of my hair. Should start growing back some time during my month of radiation.
Swollen lymph nodes gone: though technically not a side effect, but a result, it's good to know all of my swollen glands in my neck are all gone. The common type of Hodgkin's I have leaves a bit of scar tissue where the swollen gland was, but nothing like the hard round glad it was before treatment.
I haven't had any signs of chemo brain yet as it's called, I decided I'd try to avert it (if that's even possible) by keeping my mind pretty occupied with reading, films, mind games etc to keep my mind sharp if possible. I do have a bit of trouble keeping focused the couple of days after treatment, then fades. I chalk it up to the anti-anxiety meds they give me plus the steroids.
In a couple of weeks I'll finally get my next PET scan to see the progress. Hopefully it'll be good news, which I think it will be given my lack of swollen nodes.
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