A-O River!

And then there was some mild discomfort...

My water cup

I am currently experiencing what I would say is my first real good bout of chemo induced nausea.  I had been doing pretty well today, but on the way home from work I started to feel quite queasy.  This morning, in the shower, i thought I felt what could be considered the twinges of a stomach issue so I went ahead and took my nausea pill when I got out.  Every 8 hours is how often I can take them and I had only taken one last week and I think it was also on Wednesday.  I also treated myself to a whole milk whey protein shake this morning for breakfast, so that could have been the cause of the nausea to begin with.  I bought a gallon of whole milk for two reasons...1. I absolutely love whole milk, it is like drinking cream, and 2. I thought I might start struggling to eat enough and the nutritionist/dietitian that I met with recommended using whole milk when I make my protein drinks.  My drive home from work was about 9 hours after my morning pill, so either that wore off, or my nausea just took a while to set in.  I took another pill as soon as I got home and I am currently laying in bed, supported by my two trusty bed wedges, as I type this post.  I couldn't eat much for lunch, but I did try.  I had some leftover tortellini and alfredo sauce that I thought would be a great thing to eat, but it just wasn't happening today.  I did eat a whole Fuji apple and then followed that with some peanut M&M's, so I would say that was one heck of a balanced meal.  I don't think that I have mentioned my water ration that I have put myself on while I go through this adventure, so now might be a good time to get in to it.  The recommended normal water intake for the average person per day is 8-8oz glasses.  That comes out to be 64 oz of water in a 24 hour period, which also equates to 1/2 a gallon of water.  My most recent hospital stay provided me with a very nice, insulated jug of a water cup, complete with lid and straw and it has been my very best friend since I was release a few weeks ago.  It holds 32 oz of water at a time, and I currently fill it 4 to 6 times per day.  That comes out to anywhere between 1 and 1.5 gallons of water per day that I am consuming.  They told me to drink plenty of water, so that is one controllable factor in this treatment I am definitely going to hold up on.
Radiation went smoothly, enough so that I totally forgot to meet with my doctor afterwards as I am supposed to do on Wednesdays.  I was already at work and was clearing all of my reminders when I noticed the one reminding me to meet with the doctor.  Oh well...I would imagine that it probably happens routinely around there as people come and go and get used to their usual routines.  A quick email later, I was rescheduled to meet with the doctor tomorrow instead, and since my doctor is not even here this week it will be with a substitute doc anyway.  I finally took a picture of my mask to share, with an assist by the lovely Linda, one of my radiation techs.  She sets me up and runs the machine every morning when I come in.  Tomorrow she is going to take a picture for me when I am all strapped in to the table and ready for treatment so that will be another good one to pass along.

And now for something that I get a kick out of...

I was perusing my blood laboratory results from last week (from my first day of chemo, prior to treatment), just looking at all the results.  The document lists a bunch of different chemical analyses from the blood samples they took and gives my measured value and also lists the normal value range.  So I am looking through all the different things that they are measuring and I come to on called "uric acid serum".  Mine is highlighted in red and lists it as being high for that particular substance.  I wondered exactly what this was and why mine would be high, so I did as any other well rounded researcher would and google searched for uric acid serum.  The very first result led me to a definition and some possible causes for a high reading.  

I leave you with the following excerpt from the random medical website I found and I also challenge you to really dig deep in your knowledge of me to guess which of the 6 listed items you think my high uric acid level could be attributed to...

"Uric acid is a chemical created when the body breaks down substances called purines. Purines are found in some foods and drinks, such as liver, anchovies, mackerel, dried beans and peas and beer."