Kobro's Cancer Crew #15: Almost there

This whole chemo thing is getting old. Round #10 (August 9th) and #11 (August 23rd) have been a particular pain in the ass.

After round #10, a bunch of veins in my left arm got inflamed, so I started getting sharp pains around my wrist and inner forearm. Itchy rashes stared to pop up as well — some on my neck, face, chest, legs, and ankles.

The doc said I needed to continue taking the 12mg of Dexamethasone (steroids that are ~7x stronger than Prednisone).

I also got sick for a few days, so putting my all into work was tricky. I'd get these intense headaches and I think it's the first time I've experienced "chemo brain" which is sorta like a really foggy head.

All that said, could be much worse … and we only got one more round to go!

In other good news, round #11 was the first time that my liver enzymes were at a normal level in 6 months. This is a big deal, as my liver was one of the larger concerns towards the start of treatment (some chemo drugs can cause long-term liver damage).

Healthy ALT range (something to do with your liver enzymes) is 29-33 — you can see below how my ALT's been between 70 and 195 since March, but now I'm down to 48!

The doctor isn't sure why my liver is (close to) normal now. Mom's theory is that it's because the cancer's going away. I like this theory too.

Crazy to think that I'll be all done with chemo in 10 days. We're in the final stretch!

Mikayla's Ankle

Mikayla's out of her cast and has been walking these past few weeks. She can't run until November, but her Doc (not Doctor Handsome -- different, less handsome Doctor) and Physical Therapist are impressed with the recovery.

Tupper's Anxiety

Tupperware (AKA Tupper) is now on doggy anxiety medication which seems to be helping his nerves.

One of the side effects of doggy anxiety medication is Tupper doesn't get as hungry. So, in order to convince him to eat his food, we need to drizzle the juice that collects at the top of greek yogurt over his food.

Then, and only then, is the food deemed edible by Tupper.

We've tried other methods like putting pieces of turkey in there, chicken, etc. but only the juice of Greek Yogurt meets Tup's standards.

Limpus Tattoo

I've received some great ideas for the future tattoo that shows KCC beating Limpus in some way. I don't feel a rush to get the tattoo, so I'll likely take some time to think it over the next few months.

My cousin Amanda had the idea of "Limpus staring into a cracked mirror with "KCC WUZ HERE" graffitied over it".

I was curious what ChatGPT would make... while this isn't quite what I was going for, the iterations here are hilarious.

Love,
David