Balancing Zyprexa and Lorazepam is interesting. Likewise balancing my lower GI meds. There's a risk of a rapid swing from severe constipation to violently loose stool. So I work at keeping everything in line. Basically, it's like balancing on a ball. Too much one way or the other, and wham.
Also, I continue to lose hair. Gave up on the beard last night, and shaved off the ragged remnants. My mustache is holding out for a better severance package, I think, but its time is almost at hand as well. I haven't been clean shaven since 1990. Ah, milestones.
Further news on the plus side is that my CEA levels are trending down with the chemo. This is suggestive that my tumor is responding in the desired manner to the drugs. Might make surgery a little easier, not to mention validating the current course of treatment.
I went in yesterday for my Neulasta shot to deal with the immune system crashes. This drug lists for $20,000 per dose, though I have no idea what the insurance company's contracted rate is. I realize that a whole swathe of Americans are hysterically allergic to reforming the healthcare finance system, but I can recommend a trip through the bowels of the insurance payments process, or even better, a severe medical crisis without coverage at all to straighten that right out. I suspect a lot of folks would have a Damascene conversion when smacked with the reality of healthcare in America over their Galtian free market fantasies.
(Of course, a significant number of HCR opponents don't seem to understand that Medicare is publicly funded healthcare, so it's not exactly a well-informed opposition. That's what happens when you get your news from Beck and Limbaugh — like Rick Blaine come to Casablanca to take the waters, you are sadly misinformed.)
On the plus side, I feel pretty good relative to the last two chemos. And I'm finding silver linings in the schedule slip. I was able to attend my parents' 40th wedding anniversary party in good order, and I will also be making the Locus Awards in Seattle next week. This impinges on my trip to Omaha with
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the_childSo I wend my way through this week, recovering slowly.
the_childThe schedule going forward is the Locus Awards, then one more chemo, then Omaha, then Readercon, then surgery, then Renovation/Worldcon, then a straight shot of eight more chemos. That's pretty much me sorted through year's end.