BEP Round 3 Day 8

Hello everyone, sorry for yet another "after the fact" post.  This round has been very hard on me, the cumulative effects of 3 rounds really adds up and knocks you down.  Getting around to "blog" how its going etc hasn't been a priority simply because I have been focusing on recovering.  There were quite a few times where I have been in the 8-9 range on many of my rankings over the past week, and its hard to do much but sit back and try and make it through that... blogging wasn't high on my todo list :-P  I would say the past 3-4 days were by far the hardest of the whole ordeal, as the chemo builds up in your body it really wears you out mentally and physically by the time you get to Round 3.

I do have some good news though, my blood work came back and my red blood cells and hemoglobin game backup on Monday (Thanks to my wife's cooking and giving me lots of iron and vitamin C!) so I didn't need a transfusion.  I was really hoping to not have to do that so, that worked out well.  The rest of my counts were "ok", but of course we are still doing neupogen shots this week and probably next since I tend to bottom out in weeks 2 and 3 cell count wise.

Some more good news is that my fingers have stopped hurting, and they aren't red/inflamed anymore.  I can't say with medical certainty this next fact but, the 1 day I didn't take my 1600 IU (I upped it each round) of Vitamin E in the morning was the day my fingers go so inflamed, and every day since I have made sure I have taken it.. now its gone away.  A great person on one of the forums suggested that, and of course I cleared it with my Oncologist, but  I suggest that for everyone it can't hurt.

As for the coming days, I may or may not be blogging as much this blog was meant to document and share the journey and what to expect going through 3 rounds of Bleo and that is coming to a close.  In a few weeks I will have my PET/CT and we will see how well we did then discuss the next round of treatment.  That could be surveillance (which I am hoping for of course) or it could be any number of things I don't want to talk about or consider until we get to that point.

My focus over the next few weeks is to try and find a "normal" such that I can get back into the swing of daily life, working, doing things out with my wife, shopping.. just a normal life.  Its crazy to look back and think of all that has happened over the last 3 months or so with this diagnosis and all the surgery/treatment.  Its been quite the ride, and it feels like its been ages since I have just had a NORMAL day.  More than anything else that's what I am hoping to get back soon.

As for the blog I will update it when things happen, but I am going to transition off to more of an "event based" approach and not a daily "here is what happen today" kind of thing.  At this point, I have a pretty good detailing for anyone out there what to expect and how these treatments go and I want to focus on me getting better for a little while.  I appreciate all the support and the well wishes that everyone following this has been giving me and I hope this has been informative.

Next up, 1 more Bleo shot (next monday) then I am officially "done" with Chemo for now according to my Oncologist.  Then we need to do a PET/CT and see how my tumors have shrunk.  Remember I started out Stage IIB so I didn't have any > 5cm so hopefully we can get a report back that's all <1cm or scar tissue from the EC and we can transition to surveillance.  Also, of course, we want a normal range AFP (already got a normal HCG last time)