DAY 13 APRIL 6

Chemo
I am not really sure where to start. I don't want to expose my stupidity to medicine. I am just a pilot and I didn't even go to one of those academies.

This is chemo in its beauty. The two bags on the left are the real deal. The rest is saline and other bottles written in a language that will never be understood by me.

I started around 945am. It took about 45 minutes before regular bathroom visits. Then 20 minute intervals began. Probably 2 hours of that. Then at 4pm and 8pm I received "flushes." The actual chemo drug is only in the morning session.

It is late in the evening and I am feeling pretty good right now. Earlier in the day I was feeling more wiped out.

I am going to try and explain what Dr. Fedorenko told me about chemo. This will be rough and possibly highly inaccurate. It is the way I understand it though.

Multiple Sclerosis has four variants...relapsing, remitting, secondary and primary. It is an auto-immune disease. MS is a malignant blood disease. Blood gone bad in the immune system. Similar to malignant blood cancer (i.e. leukemia) but chronic versus terminal.

The auto-immune cells are all the same in the four types of MS. Some cells are just more resistant to treatment than others. He said a crude comparison would be why one patient with pneumonia  responds immediately to a simple treatment of penicillin and another patient does not.

The objective of this procedure is to cleanse the body of the harmful malignant blood and start fresh. This is where chemotherapy comes in. Cleansing is probably a misnomer but poisoning sounds so bad!

The goal is to stop the bad blood from it's attack on myelin. Sclerosis means scarring. The myelin is being attacked and forming scars at the battle scene (lesions). Conduction between the neurons becomes ineffective. Basically a short circuit.

Intro To MS is complete for tonight. We will continue tomorrow! Next will be Chemo Explained!


Breakfast


Dinner...I have a picture of lunch but it is blurry and annoying. It was pasta and stew.




Comments

  1. GailApril 6, 2019 at 7:30 PM

    Interesting Paul the fact they give you chemo but better yet hydration to get chemo out of your system? Wonder if that’s what it is? You mentioned flushes? My sister and our very good friend had the same therapy after chemo and it made a big difference as to how they felt—-flushes key word! 🙂

    ReplyDelete
  2. Scott & TriciaApril 6, 2019 at 8:08 PM

    We’ve been following your progress but just figured out how to post a comment.
    We are praying for you and Lynette and we hope for great results.
    P.S.
    I love the picture of you in the stocking cap. I’m thinking of using it as my iPhone screensaver photo.

    ReplyDelete
  3. William kastnerApril 7, 2019 at 8:25 AM

    Thanks for the ms synopsis, jen and I were just asking why there seems to be so few treatment options here? It’s like the us has no idea of what’s going on.... miss ya!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownApril 7, 2019 at 9:05 PM

    April Kennedy here! Love the updates. Feels like you aren’t so far away. I have been touched by your courage and open and honest posts. This is all so interesting and your story telling is compelling. Keep up the good work and let that chemo do the job it needs to do. We are all praying for you and Lynnette!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mark SavoldiApril 11, 2019 at 10:40 AM

    Is that a Milka chocolate bar I see hiding in almost every picture? Life is better with chocolate!

    ReplyDelete

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