Yesterday, Friday, I had my fourth chemo treatment. With the port catheter surgery the day before, I had a pretty good night sleep from the residual drugs. We started the day by going to breakfast at a great vegan joint in Fremont, Silent-Heart-Nest, a name taken from a Sri Chinmoy poem, I hope I am saying that right! My parents from California don't normally eat vegetarian let alone vegan, but this was our second time at this place and they love it. There is only a couple of things I can eat on the menu due to my limited diet, but its great food none the less. After, we went to the PCC to buy some salmon for my folks to take back to Oroville. I prepared a salmon dinner earlier in the week and they loved it. It wasn't as oily as the salmon they get in Oroville so it was that much more enjoyable. They bought enough Coho for 5 servings. We put it on one of the special Matthiessen smoke marinades and froze them.

We got to the Wellness Center a tad late and I went right in. It was busy at first so I was solo in the group room, solo since Beth and my mom had to sit in the waiting room, but the group room was filled with patients and their families. I will be getting next week off so I had a little more meds to do than usual. Besides the premeds and chemo, it was time for another Avastin and Zometa treatment. Before the start of this blog and the first chemo treatment, I had my first Zometa treatment. Zometa is a drug that reinforces the bone against the cancer. Where the cancer is eating at the bone, it cements it and strengthens it. The main side effect is bone pain and let me tell you, it hurts like hell. The only real pain I have had so far is this. The next day is not fun so I don't look forward to this treatment, but I know its necessary. At this time, I feel real stiff in my arms and my ribs have some back ground ache. Its only going to get worse as the day progresses. But, it usually only lasts the one day, oh...now my shin just started to ache now. The rest of the treatment went long but fairly well. Again, I had a small reaction to the carboplatin and had to have a little more benadryl. Dr. Chen had already saw me once in the day but came back to see why I was having those reactions. He felt it was too early in the treatment process to be having allergic reactions. The benadryl helped and we continued. My optimism tells me the chemo is getting after the cancer cells and they don't like it so are fighting it and me and thus the reaction. I really question if its allergic at all and more of a bunch of pissed off cancer cells thinking its feeding time with the surgar but getting mouth fulls of rat poison! "Die you little varmints, get out of my body!!!" We will just have to keep marching forward and take these reactions as they come. I will be talking to Dr. Sodhi on Monday and I will check with him if there is a natural antihystimine to take before treatment to help. I ended up leaving the clinic after 6 PM and was the last patient out that day. Hopefully I didn't hold anyone up on their Friday night. As I said, I get Thanksgiving week off from treatment, Dr. Chen was ok with that, but I will be sticking to my regiment of diet, herbs, and Hoxsey Tonic.

I spent the rest of the evening with my parents since they are leaving today to go back to California. The week went by fast I am sad to see them leave. Heading into Thanksgiving, I will be at the mercy of Beth's family but that will be just fine. It is a little hard knowing that all my family is so dispersed this year. Share just left for Amsterdam, something her, my dad, and I would do together for Thanksgiving. My dad, mom, and step-dad will all be in California. I know everyone would prefer to be here with me, but its just not in the cards. Anyway, I need to spend a little more time with Beth's family so this may be the start of a new tradition.

With all that has happened this week and the last 2 days, it was certainly a good week...