Update After Ist Chemo Treatment

I guess most of you know about the lymphoma diagnosis in my prostrate. The latest tests showed no lymphoma in the bone marrow, which is a blessing. The bone biopsy results are the only results missing now. The chemo started yesterday (Thurs) and no pain or side effects during that, which is nice. They took it nice and slow so it took 8 hrs and 3 IV's. But I just napped and read so I was in no hurry. They will speed it up after they see my initial reactions. They say I might experience vomiting , headaches and hair loss in a few days. We shall see. I started steroid pills today and go in for another shot today call T30. That's about it until 3 weeks when my 2nd treatment starts.

I did have a nice side-affect which I was hoping for but not expecting so soon. I did not have any back ache last night which is the first time in 3 or 4 weeks. Even Tylenol PM did not help, so maybe the chemo has started doing some shrinking of the prostrate already, but that seems very optimist. At least I got a good nights sleep and the urge to urinate was much less. So far so good.

I hope to drive down to Houston on the 20th for my birthday and my son's and spend a few days visiting family and friends before the next treatment. I did get in a round of golf this week but it was pretty poor golf; still great weather and a nice course. Also won at croquet and horse shoes so can't complain. Now I need to get back to bowling with my brother and my daily walking and drinking more water and washing hands regularly like in Africa.

After 4 treatments (12 weeks) I'll have another cat scan to see if the chemo is doing anything. I still hope to return to Tanzania this year, but that will, of course, depend on my response to the treatments. Normally it requires 6 treatments.

I got 12 new large African Cichlids donated to my new 60 gal aquarium so I'm learning how to keep them happy. It really looks nice and the visitors seem to enjoy them, especially the grand-kids. I bought a new slide scanner this week and hope to start saving most of my old slides to digital form. That could take months. Also want to install a small aquarium for experimenting with growing plants under water. That is a little more challenging than fish, but should be fun or at least interesting.