WFH with Cancer — Weeks 13 to 16

And just like that, Cycle 4 completed and phase 1 of treatment came to an end. Again, like last time, the weekly visit to the hospital was a non-event. I arrived, had bloods taken, got my injection or other treatment each week, and went home.

One change I did notice was that for the last few weeks I was not as tired and did not need my afternoon naps anymore during the week. I don't know if it was just my system getting used to all the drugs, but the afternoon naps became a thing of the past. My overnight sleeping patterns changed too. I was not awake a few times a night, but rather got good long periods of sleep excluding the Thursday nights. The steroid did keep me awake Thursdays, but I had more energy the rest of the time.

For the final cycle, my meds stayed the same and there were no more side-effects. The velcade was reduced slightly to help with the issues with necropothy, and the pins and needles did reduce over the 4 weeks. I was walking more however too so it was a combination of drugs and exercise that helped there.

Weekend stomach issues were still there however, and I am looking forward to NOT having to have those issues again. The steroid is the worst of the drugs that they give you in relation to side-effects, so do be patient with it and know that for 2 days after you take them you will be feeling off.

In the final week, my medical team walked me though the next stage of treatment. Basically with me heading now towards Stem Cell Harvesting, all my meds are being removed. So I finish out the current prescription of Lanzoprezole and Valacicovir, but the rest of the meds are stopped from the final Thursday which is brilliant.

My bloods showed a reduction in phosphorus so I got a prescription for the week to top that up, but apart from that all my bloods worked out well. I have had little issues with blood counts the past few weeks which is brilliant.

So, did the last 16 weeks work? Well we discussed before the paraprotein marker that is measured in my bloods every few weeks, and based on the latest results, it worked really well. My paraprotein level dropped to 2.4 which is really healthy. My team are really happy with that. While they want it at 0, but to get that low means that the treatment worked really well, and that the maintenance plan going forward will be really quick too.

So for the next few months, I will still need to be in the hospital for the nebulizer and the zometa injections, but that's just 2 weeks out of the 4 so less time in hospital each month from December onwards.

So next steps now is the Stem Cell Harvesting in November. That will be 2 weeks of daily treatment (both at home and in the hospital) so once that is over I can give you more information on that one. I am not really looking forward to it as its an unknown, but I know that with the faith I have in the team that I will sail though it and get to the other side of the treatment.

As for work, as I said before I did not need the naps and had more energy so that went well this month. We were busier and I was able to get more and more done in work ahead of the 2 weeks of a break I will need in November, but energy levels allowed me to get a lot of work done which was great.

I also met with the Health and Safety team and went over my remote workspace. While the office is reopening now that restrictions are being lifted, it will be late next year before I am able to go into the office due to my immune system, but for the moment, I will continue to work from home and manage my workspace here as much as possible. One change that did come out of the meeting with the Heath and Safety team was a desk and chair upgrade. They are supplying a new office chair for me (mine is over 20 years old and falling apart at this stage) and a sit/stand desk converter will be delivered and installed for me to allow me to stand more during the day to take pressure of the legs and ins and needles from sitting so much.

Having conversations with work and keeping them informed on how things have been going have helped in ensuring that I get the support needed, but also helped them in understanding where I am coming from too. I have had a number of people reach out over the last few months around their experiences undergoing treatment and asking about continuing to work too. While I have been able to continue working, I do understand that its not possible for everyone, but honestly if you are able to do so (even under limited hours) for peace of mind and even just to act as a distraction, I would recommend keeping your day to day as normal as possible. The treatment cycle will fly by once your into the swing of things, so having some sort of normality to your day is key to ensuring that you manage to stay sane and distracted.

So for now, I am waiting for the next phase to start.