Today is Day 43 – and Dave is HALF WAY THROUGH his Chemo! Yay! This doesn’t include the 3 weeks of radiotherapy afterwards – but hey we are keen to knock over some milestones 🙂

The cover pic is one I took on my walk at dusk last night. No filter and taken with my iPhone. Isn’t the pink of the sky beautiful?  It was freezing cold – so it made for a very brisk walk. I did 12,000 steps yesterday!

ABVD Chemo is given in fortnightly doses and tomorrow he will get his fourth dose of poison. As most people know, Chemotherapy is a method of killing cancer cells by injecting poisonous drugs into your veins. Unfortunately those poisons also kill some good cells, hence the side effects that so may chemo patients endure.

A couple of weeks before Dave’s treatment started he and I went to the oncology unit at Canberra Private Hospital and met with one of the lovely nurses for a chemotherapy education session. It was very helpful, going through all the aspects of how the treatment would be given including talking through many of the possible side-effects.  As with much of this cancer experience, every person seems to undertake a different journey.

We were given a couple of copies of a booklet all about Hodgkin’s Lymphoma which included a list of the many possible side effects.

Many of you have been asking about the side effects Dave has been experiencing.

Here is a list of the likely side effects of ABVD – and the ones he has and hasn’t had.

Dave, in his ever positive and patient way, is very pleased with himself that he hasn’t had them all. He sees the good, and sometimes I am a little prone to see the bad. We are different. I think it makes this marriage work. At nearly 25 years I think we’ve proven that 🙂

Hair loss	He didn’t have much to start with! He lost all they grey in the first couple of weeks and now has lost most of the black hair too.
More likely to get infections and heal poorly	He was doing well with this one till last week – then got a cut an infection on his nose that required IV antibiotics. See the full story on the blog a few days ago.
Feeling tired & weak	A little all the time, but definitely on days 5-10. Getting a little worse and a little longer each treatment.
Bruise easily	Lots of small bruises on his arms from injections but nothing else.
Nausea & vomiting	Only a little bit of nausea- easily fixed by popping a maxalon!
Mouth problems & taste changes	So far so good – nothing to report! I had planned to write this whole blog about the types of food he liked and could eat – but there has been no need to adjust anything so far.
Taste changes	Nothing so far!
Sore arms & veins	This is on and off. Sometimes his arms really ache, especially the left one. It was definitely not helped by the cannula issues in hospital last week. I hope they can get a cannula in OK tomorrow.