June 8, 2025 – Chemo More Tolerable

For the latest treatment, my oncologist reduced the strength.  The good news is that this also reduced the side effects.  This is where the side effects stand now:  

1. Fatigue – Although I still have some fatigue, I am almost back to normal and am happy to live a more normal life.  

2.  Nausea – I have had only a couple of days of nausea, which were handled very well by the anti-nausea pills.  

3.  Rash – No more rash.  The patch has disappeared and no itching.  I do wonder if the rash wasn’t caused by the antibiotics I was taking for my UTI.  

4.  Neuropathy – I still have occasional attacks, but they are much less frequent. I don’t feel the need to take any pain killers for these.  

5.  Chest tightness – I had one three-day period where I had an extremely stiff neck and when I took a deep breath I felt like a baseball had hi the middle and back of my chest.  I finally broke down and took an Ibuprophen and it went away.  Tylanol didn’t do anything. 

6.  Morning sweats – I often wake up sweating in the mornings.  I am also running a temperature about one degree less than my normal 97.3 degrees, so I am often chilly during the day.  This is new so I tie it to the chemo.  

7.  Slight loss of taste – Things just don’t taste as good..

Sleeping is still a challenge, but I think I am getting enough sleep in spite of my hourly awakenings.

UTI

After the first course of antibiotics I gave a urine sample to my urologist.  He sent it to LabCorp and four days later the results came back as positive for e.Coli.  I called the weekend number to get an antibiotic and Dr. Perez was the doctor on call.  Since he had been my urologist and knew a little of my history, he prescribed Cipro for 7 days.  I took the Cipro and three days after the last pill I submitted another urine sample that went to LabCorp. On June 7th  I got the results.  I still have an UTI, but it is no longer e.Coli.  Here is the report:

Abnormal:  Staphylococcus haemolyticus

“Based on resistance to oxacillin this isolate would be resistant to all currently available beta-lactam antimicrobial agents, with the exception of the newer cephalosporins with anti-MRSA activity, such as Ceftaroline 10,000-25,000 colony forming units per mL.”

I sent a message to my urologist requesting a prescription.  I hope to get this on Jun 9^th.

These UTI’s concern me as I go through chemo.  I am also concerned about my tolerance to various antibiotics.  We’ll see on this one.

Bottom line: 

I’m doing okay. 

Les