Day one of second cycle of high dose chemo.

Warning, the first half dozen paragraphs of this post feature nothing but silly ramblings on my part, I have no idea why I am posting it, I might be bored, it might be the chemo. Robyn might make me delete it.
Medical stuff is further down the page.

Well I obviously have not found a doppelganger to do my chemo for me, who would have thought it would be so hard to find someone? I mean come on people, all you have to do is lie around all day!
Sigh, I blame Gen Y, for no other reason than I am not one of them, so I can. You would think that lying around all day would appeal to gen y in particular. Don't you gen y kids go complaining about my picking on you, I'm old, therefore I am not going to listen anyway. Instead I will just tell you a long winded story that has no point, like the one below:

Speaking about doppelgangers reminds me of something that happened to Robyn and I a couple of years ago. I think it was the year of 2008, which the UN appropriately declared to be the year of the potato (really!!) as the following events took place:

• The use of social networking overtook the use of email for the first time due to all you narcissistic brats having too much time on your hands!
• The price of petroleum hit US$100 a barrel for the first time.
• Lots of bankers managed to screw the entire global economy without any apparent long term consequences to themselves apart from the handing out off a golden parachute here and there.
• Armed fighting broke out in Lebanon (really, it started that long ago).
• The Pope attends world youth day, make of that what you will...
• New Kids on the block made a comeback.
• Justin Beiber was 'discovered' by a 'talent manager' named Scooter Braun...

In a failed attempt to remain oblivious to the tragic events above we used to frequent Vic Market. One of our regular stops was at a store that sold West African food, possibly Nigerian, but I can't remember (chemo can do that to you). The store was regularly operated by a cheerful man of African ancestry who one day asked us what our relationship was. We told him we are married (don't panic Mum, we aren't! It's just easier to tell people that, really!). At this he burst laughing and said amid his guffaws "But you look so similar! Ha ha ha ha, I thought you were brother and sister! Ha ha ha ha!" We laughed too as we were somewhat lost for words, no one had said anything said similar to us before, nor have they since. Nonetheless we began to make a careful comparison of our respective family trees on the trip home. The investigations got more serious after we discovered that our bottom front teeth share similar angles and extent of crookedness. Thankfully I can report that our family trees only begin to merge around common ancestors about 128,363 years ago, the deviates involved were named Grunt and Ugh and we are assured by the fossil evidence that they were just trying to keep warm... Really. It is not the reason we moved to Tasmania. Please stop asking. I told you this story would be pointless didn't I!!
Maybe it's just the case that us whities all look alike to recently arrived Africans... Who knew?!

Anyway, best I get back to the boring medical stuff before I get myself in more trouble (I hope everyone took the above in the spirit it was meant, i.e. a bit of fun).
I had the first dose of the second cycle of high dose chemotherapy today. All went well with my only symptoms being a touch more nausea and a bit more fatigue plus a few other minor things hanging over from the previous cycle.
Like last time, complications are unlikely to be troublesome until my blood counts start to drop right off on around day 6. Also like last time, we will remain vigilant for problems and deal with things as they occur rather than worrying to much about what might happen, because worrying would be a waste of time that I could otherwise spend writing stupid blog posts.
This cycle of chemo is exactly the same as the last:

• 2am to 10am: Pre chemo hydration of normal saline with added potassium and magnesium.
• 10am to 10:30am: Pre chemo medications, mostly anti-nausea meds and a diuretic.
• 10:30am to 11:30am: 1st chemo drug (etoposide).
• 11:30am to 12:30pm: 2nd chemo drug (carboplatin).
• 12:30 pm to 2:30am: Post chemo hydration of normal saline with added potassium and magnesium
• Day two and three: Repeat the above (no break between post and pre hydration for subsequent days).
• Day four: Hydration all day.
• Day five: Stem cell transfusion.
• Day 6 to day 19: Monitor and manage side effects.
• Day 20: Planned discharge from hospital (sooner if things are good, later if they are not, last time I was discharged on day 18).
• Readmission to hospital for the start of cycle three as soon as it is safe to do so, (last time I was readmitted on day 22, which becomes day 1 of the next cycle).

Cheers, Pete.