{"id":4879,"date":"2005-10-10T08:44:01","date_gmt":"2005-10-10T08:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=4879"},"modified":"2025-09-24T00:06:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T00:06:21","slug":"third_chemother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=4879","title":{"rendered":"Third chemotherapy session"},"content":{"rendered":"

My third chemotherapy session was last Tuesday, the 4th<\/sup> of October. So far, again not much in the way of side effects. I was able to have good gym sessions since then, and will go again later today. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

I do have some numbness in the tips of my fingers. Dr. Chia (the MSK oncologist I saw on Tuesday) suggested taking vitamin B-6, which I have started. I also had a rash, mostly on my back, and there was a slight concern about it being a reaction to one of the meds. But it seems to have gone away. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

On Wednesday morning I went down to MSK in Manhattan for my appointment with Dr. Nikolaides, one of the kidney docs whose been following my Nephrotic Syndrome. I got down to Sloan Kettering, through the appointment, and back home in record-breaking time, proving once again that every day should be a Jewish holiday. Which was good, since Paul\u2019s wake was that afternoon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

The news was good \u2013 she had the bloodwork from the prior day and said that when Wednesday\u2019s results were in there was a good chance we\u2019d be lowering the meds I was on. And that was the case \u2013 on Friday she called and said there was \u201cno protein in my urine to speak of\u201d and that my cholesterol was down to \u201cabout 150\u201d (Nephrotic Syndrome raises your cholesterol \u2013 mine had gone up to 400 in July) and I could discontinue the cozaar and lipitor. So all in all, excellent news. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

I gave Dr. Nicolaides a gift when I saw her \u2013 a small book entitled \u201cThe Doors to the Sea\u201d. My last visit to her six weeks earlier, I\u2019d mentioned that I was already working on a book list for myself for the stem cell hospitalization session after chemo ended, and she asked me what I\u2019d be reading. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Doors to the Sea\u201d is an essay by an Orthodox theologian with the subtitle \u201cWhere was God in the Tsunami?\u201d It\u2019s kind of an interesting coincidence that I had been reading it when the personal tsunami of my brother\u2019s death occurred. Dr. Nicolaides had told me she is Greek Orthodox, so I figured I\u2019d give her a copy. She seemed to appreciate it.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

So as far as my chemotherapy, thing are going well.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My third chemotherapy session was last Tuesday, the 4th of October. So far, again not much in the way of side effects. I was able to have good gym sessions since then, and will go again later today. I do have some numbness in the tips of my fingers. Dr. Chia (the MSK oncologist I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-lymphoma-and-related-medical-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9909,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4879\/revisions\/9909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}