Chemo Day

 

Twice a month, I have infusions, one is for the continued suppression of my Melanoma and the second one is to boost my immune system because the infusion for my Melanoma has destroyed it.

Every four weeks I have an infusion of OPDIVO and the next day, I have an infusion for IVIG.  The former lasts 30 minutes, the latter lasts 2.5 hours.  The former I have a UT Medical Cancer Center, the latter I have at UT Medical Satellite facility in Morristown.

I have been having infusions over 15 years, and with my December 2024 infusion, I will have completed my 16th year.  I have had over 150 chemo infusions for my two cancers and over 60 infusions of IVIG to try and repair the damage my chemo infusions have caused.

At the age of 60, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's B Cell Lymphoma and I the age of 65 and as a result of my Lymphoma treatments, I was diagnosed with Melanoma.

My Melanoma diagnosis caused me to have a few surgeries as the cancer moved from my foot to my groin to my neck before finally being killed by radiation treatments.

My treatments now (Opdivo infusions for Melanoma - daily Venclexta pills for Lymphoma) are simply to keep my cancers from growing at all.  I will have these treatments for the rest of my life.

I typically awake at 6:00 am on Chemo Day, shower and arrive at UT Medical Cancer Center by 7:30 am for labs, doctor visit, and treatment.  If the flow of patients is smooth, I am on my way home by 10:00/10:30 am.

However, some mornings, like this one, I cannot sleep and was up at 3:30 am drinking decaf coffee with sugar free Cappuccino Mix and working on my two blogs.

On my IVIG days, like tomorrow, I will be up at 6:00 am and will finish at 10:30/11:00 am but trip home will take only 15 minutes as opposed to 40/45 minutes when traveling to Knoxville.

I consider myself to be lucky that I am still ABOVE GROUND.