Dragonsanddemons’s Health Diary

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Tylenol is good for fever. Not so good for inflammation.

Yeah, that’s what I thought, but my mom is the one who has been getting most of the information because I don’t do phone calls well. Ibuprofen is our default pain reliever, so when she gave me Tylenol, I thought that meant I still wasn’t supposed to have ibuprofen. But then again, what they prescribed me and works much better is Tylenol with something else added, I guess that could be why. Also makes it a bit surprising that the Tylenol alone did almost nothing for that pain (though it made my throat, which has been quite sore from post-nasal drip, most likely due to allergies, barely hurt at all). That’s something I can confirm (or not) with them tomorrow, is whether ibuprofen is okay or not. But this boosted Tylenol works great, earlier today (it’s wearing off now) my shoulder barely hurt at all.

I’m fully expecting everything to be fine. The wound is only slightly swollen and looks normal, no redness or anything, and nothing’s coming out of it, so I don’t expect it to be infected or anything, could even be nothing more than that my immune system is dealing with other stuff and can’t devote all its attention to healing the incision, plus I’m a bit of a slow healer to begin with. Not expecting it needs anything more than time and rest.

Appointment with the oncologist on Thursday morning, my mom guesses that it will be about the results of the biopsy.

Well, I had my appointment with the ENT about my incision, and as I expected he said everything looks good on that end. To my surprise, he also gave us the results of my second biopsy. It’s official now, I have cancer. Specifically, nodular sclerosis Hodgkin lymphoma. Google says that is the most common and most readily treatable kind of Hodgkin lymphoma. Presumably at my appointment on Thursday we will be discussing treatment plans.

I don’t care that it is indeed cancer (especially since it’s one of the least scary types and there’s really no reason to believe I won’t be perfectly fine after treatment), I’m just extremely relieved to finally have a diagnosis and know what to expect to be happening soon and stuff. Seriously, the only emotion I felt upon receiving the diagnosis was relief. I feel so much better now that we actually know something, even if it means I’m going to have to feel worse (from chemotherapy) before I feel better. At least I will most likely get better.

<hug>

We’re jumping right into things now that I have a diagnosis. I need a bunch of tests before starting chemo just to get a baseline and make sure everything’s all right. Next week is very busy - Monday I get my port put in, Tuesday I have a treatment information session and they’re going to do some lab work, Wednesday I have a pulmonary function test, and Thursday I have an echocardiogram. Also at some point I need to get another COVID test because my last one was only a day or two too early.

We’ll be here for you throughout the course of your treatment.

Indeed.

Best of luck with your treatment. It is nice to have finally have answers.

I got my port put in today. I found out that they’ll also give me some lidocaine to use before I go in to have anything done with the port, so I won’t even feel any needles going in or anything - bonus! I spent much of the day sleeping off the residual anesthesia, and once I was aware enough to realize, my shoulder they put it in was telling me that if it wasn’t in the exact right position, it was going to feel like there was still a knife working on it. Definitely hurt a lot more than the incision for my biopsy did. Fortunately I still have heavy-duty pain pills left from that, and when I took one of those, after thirty minutes or so, the pain went, on a scale of one to ten with one being no pain, from a 9 (I’m always hesitant to use ten on those scales because I imagine there could, in fact, be something that hurts more than whatever I’m experiencing) to a 3. So nice to know recovery won’t be as dreadful at first as I thought it was going to be, at least as long as I keep an eye on the time for my next pain pill dose.

Hope your are over it now and recover soon! Wish you the best!

I had an information session today where we discussed the details of my treatment plan (ABVD is the particular mix I will be getting), and I found out that we’re looking at starting chemo on August 20th. It will take 5-6 hours the first time then about three hours every subsequent time. I’m expecting the procedure to be pretty similar to the iron infusions I had for anemia, which pretty much is just sit there until the IV stuff is finished getting into you, with snacks, drinks, and a bathroom available during the process, bring a book/your phone/etc to entertain yourself, and if you don’t have anything you’d rather do, they also have little TV screens at each station so you can watch TV if you want. I got to see the infusion center where I will be getting chemo since that’s where we went for my blood draw today, it looks roomier than where I had my iron infusions done and they have some areas with a bit more privacy than others, if I want to request one of the more private areas I can. Also my mom is dropping off paperwork to get a handicap tag for the car so she won’t have to keep dropping me at the door because the walk from a parking space would be too much for me.

<hug>

brave dragon

COVID test tomorrow (I’m 100% sure it will come back negative, I had one two weeks ago (exactly, come tomorrow, actually - only a few days outside of the range for needing another before starting chemo) that came back negative and have only been out to doctor appointments since then), then... nothing until chemo. Only four days. I feel like I really need to make the most of those days... except that I already don’t have the strength/energy to do much of anything.