day5

This is the last day of this round of chemo. Ed has been well,no loss of appetite and calm. He had the problem of injection site reaction which was large red areas and sore. He was alternating arms so the left arm was red a few hours after the shots and into the next day (when he had the shots in the right arm) by the day after that the right arm was red but the left had cleared up and he got the shots in that arm again.
This week went better than I expected and I just hope that the drug does what it's supposed to do. We won't know that for at least a few months. Three weeks off now and then another round.

day 3

Today the doc had to look at Ed's arm,the injection from Monday made 2 large red areas that felt warm. He thinks it may be the start of an infection and ordered an antibiotic. From what I read ,the redness reaction is common...we'll see how this plays out.  He is also starting to get constipated, another common side effect of not just the Vidaza but also the anti nausea drugs. Prune juice in the fridge...but the antibiotic may do the opposite.So far that's been the only problems, but this is only day 3 of the first round..hopefully things will not get worse...

Day One

Today went better than I expected. My husband was calm, I needed a valium.... His blood test numbers were good (for him) and he had his usual shot of procrit and then 2 subcu injections of vidaza. He said it didn't hurt and we were sent on our way. He took an anti nausea drug before we left home and will take them every 8 hours. So far ,all is well. He feels fine, hungry after taking a short nap. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this continues,although ,after getting a few doses the side effects may rear their ugly heads..let's hope not. Youngest son called from an airport on his way to a work trip to check on him : )  and my sister called this evening.  Looking forward to a quiet night and will be back at the doc in the morning for the next dose.

the start

  This is my first try at blogging. I really don't know what I'm doing,but I'll wing it.
Some background is in order I guess. I have been married for 41 years to my best friend. We met when I was just 15 and he 16 and have been together ever since. We have two wonderful sons and two grandsons. Life was great..plans for retirement were to have fun and visit the grandkids. Then it happened, a chance blood test showing my husband to be very anemic..this led to more doctors visits and tests. He underwent 3 bone marrow biopsies before one doctor finally made a diagnosis, it was myelofibrosis, a bone marrow disease similar to leukemia. We were devastated ,he was feeling good and seemed well but for the blood counts,so how could he be so sick? He has been having shots of procrit for almost a year now and has reached the maximum dose. He has also had 5 blood transfusions in that time  and now he needs to go to the next level of treatment...chemotherapy. This will not cure him,it is a stop gap measure to try and put off the ultimate treatment...a bone marrow transplant. We are lucky, his brother is a match and is willing to donate marrow but his age makes the risks higher. We are told the odds of surviving the transplant process is 30% at best so the docs are trying to keep him relatively healthy as long as possible.
  Tomorrow he starts chemo, we have no idea how he will react to it,if he will suffer bad side effects or not. If it will even help or not. I am scared for him.....and for me.I start cleaning when I'm nervous, the house should be spotless pretty soon. Then I will start sewing things, that's something else I do to try and relax...doesn't always work,but at least something useful gets made.
 I hope this next week goes well and trying to stay positive.