I knew that chemotherapy was a lousy business but I can now speak from direct experience and it really sucks.

My first round of shots are done.
I got 14 shots in my belly (2 at a time for seven days).
The bruising and rashes that came with the shots were quite dramatic.
Instead of repeating that, for the next round I will be doing IV infusions.
They take a bit longer but should be less uncomfortable.
Getting a port placed on November 20th.
Curious to see how long it takes for the belly bruises and rashes to clear up.

Still doing the chemo pills.
Unclear exactly what is causing what side effects but I think the low grade up and down fever is connected more to the pills than the shots.

And I wondered if I would get to experience the “sensitive skin” that is mentioned a lot.
I’m sure that it takes many forms but for me it mostly has meant that everything itches.

So.
Things took a bit of a dip for me over the last seven days but last shots were on Tuesday morning and on Wednesday I got another blood transfusion so things are on a bit of an upswing.

Tuesday night I got myself a fever.
Nothing huge but it made for a lousy night and a tough Wednesday.

One nice thing happened on Wednesday.
I had an appointment with my fabulous, talented, and very kind Nail Tech Grace (Nails by Grace in Edina).
Not supposed to do manicures/pedicures so I had to get my polygel removed.
It was nice to see Grace (as always) and we did one last shade of blue polish (regular polish is allowed) to get me through the election.
I will miss Grace and look forward to whenever it is in 2025 that I can go back to getting my amazing polygel manicures.

Because Wednesday was so hard my friend Bradley drove me to my shot appointment today.
I was feeling a bit better this morning but it was really nice to have the company.
After I got home Lenny and I had a quiet day mostly sleeping today.
Today was Day Four of Seven Days of Shots so I’m over the half way point for this first cycle of shots.
I’m up to full strength on the daily chemo pills I’m taking as well.
And the platelet infusion from Tuesday totally helped, way less bleeding/bruising at the injections sites from Wednesday and today.

OH and the really fun thing…the pooled blood in my forehead from Monday’s event with the medicine cabinet door, remember that blood?
Well that blood is settling down around my eyes now.
If I was a Halloween person I could really have made something of the big purple lump on my forehead and my black eyes.

Filling In the Facts: So for any of you I’ve failed to fill in. After all the testing and the waiting, on October 21st I finally got an official diagnosis.
“High Risk MDS with Excess Blasts”
Note that if you google that it looks pretty shitty BUT being reasonably young and reasonably healthy we are taking the aggressive route to beat it.
Okay, it actually is pretty shitty but I can beat it.

Good news.
No new injuries to myself today!
BUT my forehead is super achy from yesterday.

Second round of shots went fine this morning and then they sent me across the street to get a platelet transfusion.
People said that platelets wouldn’t take as long as a blood transfusion (had one of those on October 10th) but I’m not convinced it was much faster.

Many years ago when I was still on Facebook I watched people seem to compete about two things, first was whose kids were the worst behaved (seriously people, I hope those kids never saw those posts) and second, who was the most tired.
Ever since then I have avoided using the word tired but today, today I hit new levels of tired that I have never before felt.
Don’t know if the platelets will help with the tired or if they are just to lower my risk of internal hemorraging (which is plenty) but dang am I wiped out.

It all went well and on my way out I ran into a friend from work on the sidewalk.
Small world.
Was nice to see you RT!

On the way home I stopped at the co-op and got a fresh loaf of sourdough bread because I’m only a few days in and I’m already weary of the TAKE WITH FOOD instructions on all my meds.
That bread made everything better.
About to eat more of that bread and then I can do last meds for the day and go to bed.

Historical Note for Those of You New to My Illness: The reason we caught things early is becuase I have been a blood donor since high school. After 35 years of regular blood donation I was turned away in July becuase my hemoglobin was too low. I’ve never been turned away from donating. Note that it was too low to donate but still within normal levels for general life. I went back on my iron pills and splurged on some red meat. Went back in September to try to donate and my hemoglobin had dropped to 10.0 which is too low for normal levels. Plus, in late August I had started getting unusual random bruises. So. I visited my Mom on 9/14-15, I celebrated my birthday on 9/16 (turned 55), and on 9/19 I went to the doctor who took many many vials of blood. On 9/20 the blood panel looked bad which led to more tests on Friday and Tuesday and on Thursday 9/26 they did a bone marrow biopsy. Then LOTS of waiting.

Monday was a big day.
Got up timely to go to appointment for first chemo treatment.
Was a bit wobbly for a variety of reasons and managed to smack my forehead with my bathroom vanity mirror.
Sadly this isn’t a very unusual experience for me BUT was very surprised after my shower to discover a LARGE lump on my forehead.
So I showed up for treatment with a big ol’ lump that was slowly starting to bruise.

Did blood draw and then sat down with Dr. L so he could sign off on starting treatment.
He was so kind but I felt like I’d made him sad with my clumsiness.
Turns out my platelets are down to 29 and bashing yourself on the head when your platelets are at 29 is a problem.

Anyhoo I did get to start treatment so I got my shot, took my first chemo pill, added another 2x/day pill to the one I started over the weekend and things are underway.

Spent the rest of the day essentially napping with Lenny and occasionally icing my forehead lump.

NOTE: I am aware that I’m starting at the beginning of something but it isn’t the beginning of the larger event. This whole website thing is very outside my abilities so it will take me a bit to get everything figured out. Will work on filling in some bits that happened prior to today as time goes on and I get better at this website thing. I have big dreams of having a Q&A section…will see if I get there. For now this will serve for regular updates for anyone who wants to know how things are going.