The nausea was so bad that I spent most of last week in bed when I was not at treatment. On Friday, I asked my Oncologist for something stronger than the Tylenol and Benadryl that I was taking to control the nausea. He gave me a prescription for Ondansteron, which costs about $29/pill (thank god for insurance) and only lasts about 6 hours (I still have to use Tylenol to handle the head aches that are a side effect of the anti-nausea drup and Benadryl to control my allergic reaction to the Chemo-nose that does not run, it drips.) I took one of the new pills on Friday afternoon and it cleared up the nausea in about 1/2 hour and I have used the pills sparingly over the weekend because insurance does not like to cover the number of pills I would need to take them on a schedule and I want to make sure I have a few for the times that I absolutely need them. A quick word about my insurance, Blue Shield. I have been very impressed with them, they have been quick with claims and have not given me any issues, other than the anti-nausea medicine, and the reason for that is that nausea is not a main side effect of my Chemo, and therefore not generally covered. The doctor had to claim the nausea was due to Radiation to get the pills covered. I have not added up all the claims yet, but the combined cost of the surgery and Radiation and Chemo treatments are in the $250,000 range. I have only had about $1,000 out of pocket to date on the claim, but I have not gotten the bill from Stanford for my part of the Radiation and Chemo, I think they are saving it to the end, so when I am thankful that the treatment is over I won't mind paying the out of pocket.
This weekend was about taking it easy and listening to my body. The radiation makes it hard to motivate and find the strength to want to do much more than lie around and nap. Friday night we had tickets to go see a stage show of the life of John Lennon, called 'A Day In His Life' ( http://www.adayinhislife.com/), which was great. The performer, Tim Piper, talked about John's life from the first person and explained the genesis of his songs and performed the songs in a chronological order. The band backing him was amazing and the entire night was a blast. We had a crew of 6 of us and we had drinks and snacks before the show as well as a little tailgating in the parking lot before the show (no alcohol for me, my mouth can't handle it.) Sat and Sun were just light days with a lot of football to enjoy.
I did have some major issues with mouth sores over the weekend and had problems with chewing and swallowing which caused me to eat less than I should have over the weekend and I lost 4 lbs from Friday to this morning's weigh-in, good news if this were Weight Watchers, but since it is not, I will hear about it tomorrow when I see the doctor. I am starting to use the lidocaine rinse quite frequently now just to dull the pain in swallowing saliva. I have not gone back to the Vicodin yet, that stuff just dulls me out and I want to delay using it until it is a last resort. The interesting issue again is the 'pleasure/pain' conundrum. I can't taste the food I am eating-thus no pleasure and the pain that is causes it extensive, so the natural reaction is to avoid the pain by not eating. Even smoothies hurt to swallow, so that is not a relief. I have found that if I let the lidocaine sit in my mouth for about a minute, I can get through a short meal, so that is my new ritual. The body is amazing in that, I do not get hungry because the body understands the pleasure/pain issue and does not tell me to eat.
I am down to only 11 more radiation and 4 chemo treatments and counting them down.
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