Ice Pops and Poison

It’s a strange thing to sit here as I’ve just been poisoned for my own good.

The chemotherapy has started. Melphalan has been injected and I’m sitting here sucking on an ice pop. I’ve not had one in years but it’s a necessary medical treatment. The purpose is to keep my mouth and gut cool (a form of cryotherapy), providing a little relief from the effects of the Melphalan.

This drug will rip through my body killing good cells and bad cells alike. It purpose is to kill off the Myeloma completely, prolonging my remission.

The downside is that in my throats and gut the cells will not be replaced causing soreness, irritation and diarrhoea. The main hope for me is that my poorly kidney is not further upset by the process and comes through unscathed (see previous post).

They started by giving me a dose of potassium salts, which given my hitherto restrictions was a little odd (where’s a fresh banana when you want one!). This was followed by three doses of saline. They need to keep me hydrated throughout this process. They are monitoring my urine output and my weight. I have put on 5kg since this morning (water retention) so am getting an additional diuretic. An emetic has also been dripped in. This to prevent against sickness caused by the Melphalan. There will also be an anticoagulant (a form of Clexane) up until now this drug has not been used due to my kidney, but this time they feel a reduced dose preferable to both Warfarin and Heparin. Again the kidney needs to be protected.

I’ve got the next 48 hours on a drip of some sort. In many ways it’s like it was in April when I was in Lincoln at the start of this process.