Kicking AML’s Ass: Phase 1 complete

Posted by @ 12:50 pm on Sunday 3rd January, 2016.

Woohoo! - they've finished poisoning me!

This morning I had my final dose of chemo for Cycle 1. For the next four weeks I will be playing the waiting game while my system attempts to reboot. Hopefully there will be no BSOD - the odds are in my favour at about 80:20 (some sources say 85:15).

For those who are interested, I've been on a "3 & 10" chemo regime. That means 3 days of Daunorubicin (days 1, 3 & 5) combined with 10 days of Cytarabine (days 1-10), all given IV up a PICC Line. The Daunorubicin was an hour per bag, looked like Irn Bru and made my piss the same colour, which was a tad disconcerting at first. It also made me nauseous the next day. The Cytarabine was a syringe job taking only a few minutes, it was clear stuff which stank. I had a persistent slow nosebleed which meant that some Cytarabine leaked into my sinuses and throat when they administered it, the smell of it was slowly sending me around the bend. It also gave me a lovely chemical burn down the throat.

Anyway, the nosebleed has stopped because they gave me a platelet transfusion last night. And I will get a haemoglobin transfusion later today which will perk me up a bit.

per ardua ad alta, as they say at my alma mater.

One Response to “Kicking AML’s Ass: Phase 1 complete”

  1. AlanR says:

    Great to see you are so positive in such bad circumstances. Keep it up and we will follow your progress on the blog. All the very best for 2106 and lets hope 90:10 is only a short time away.

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