Tag: dex

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How To Stop Unstoppable Hiccups

Jothi

As it turns out, one of the rare side effects of dexamethasone is uncontrolled hiccups. And guess what? I am lucky enough to have that side effect.

It was kind of funny the first time it happened, years ago now. Hic hic hic. I tried all my normal methods of stopping hiccups. Held my breath. Drank some water. Held my breath and drank some water, etc. Nothing worked. Hic hic hic. I thought they would just go away with some time. They didn’t.

I was hiccuping for hours and things were starting to get hairy. I was hiccuping up stomach acid, and it was getting painful, and I couldn’t get it to stop!

It turns out there is a simple solution for any hiccups, unstoppable or regular. Also, the great thing about it, it stops them very quickly.

Sucking on a lemon wedge. Something about the sour and the sucking motion, wipes out hiccups almost instantaneously. Plus, who doesn’t look great with a lemon wedge there instead of teeth, added bonus!

All you have to do is bite a little bit on the lemon flesh, to release the juice, and suck on the wedge like a pacifier. Make sure you are swallowing the juice as you do it. I was a little concerned when I was hiccuping up acid, adding more acid (lemon juice) to acid, but it stopped them so quickly, I almost felt like my esophagus’s life had just been saved.

Now if they ever start, I get a lemon wedge right away and not let it get that far. There you go. I hope this saves your esophagus’s life or at least some sanity from not hiccuping forever….

I had to add this one, it was too funny. I think I would make a good passport photo, imagine the immigration officer’s face.
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Gnomes!!!

Jothi

Have you ever seen the children’s movie: Chicken run? Made by Nick Park, the same guy who did Wallace and Gromit. I think the guy is pretty clever and witty, so I liked his shows a lot.

Anyhow the old guy, in Chicken run is being fooled by the chickens and he says “Gnomes”, thinking gnomes are causing the trouble. I still think of that when I hear “Gnomes!”.

Some gnome houses sprouted up overnight in the garden.

It’s amazing how fast mushrooms grow. 

I feel if there ever was a universal cure for cancer, it would come from mushrooms! 

I do eat mushrooms, almost daily. I wouldn’t eat these ones though, being mostly mushroom ignorant. I also take reishi daily for the potential anti myeloma effect.

If you ever wanted to watch an awesome show (I think so anyhow), watch Fantastic Fungi (Netflix has it). They have some amazing time lapse clips and interesting mushroom information.

I haven’t felt like posting for a little while. Mostly been uninspired. I guess I did start one post, that I’m actually really excited about: Death. (Excited about the post, not death 😜).

I’ve been really enjoying writing it and I really hope it is helpful and makes you go “hmm”. It’s been kicking around in my head for months and I’ve been itching to write it. It’s an really important one for me, so I don’t want to flub it.

It was infusion day for me today. They had me take 40mgs of Dex (steroid) on top of the chemo. Dex at this strength, makes my lower back ache like crazy. It’s going to be awesome, can’t sleep and a achy back 👍🏻😝. Really, “everything is awesome”, (woah, Lego movie, I guess I have shows pouring out of my head).

Cheers and Eat your Vegetables!

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Ya Grumpy Bastard

Jothi

Dexamethasone Dexamethasone Dexamethasone

It’s a steroid that is supposed to enhance chemotherapy. I told my brother the other day that I’m taking a steroid.

“Cool” he said, “Are you going to have huge muscles?”

“I wish, not that kind of steroid” I replied, remembering my very normal muscles from the mirror the other day.

“No, I just get to lose sleep and have my mental aspects altered”.

I’m currently taking 20mg Saturday and Sunday, which is the high. Steroid crash starts happening Monday night and all of Tuesday. It feels like I want to collapse and explode at the same time. Also it seems like there is a little angry gremlin in my chest trying to escape

I was eating lunch talking with my wife about it last month.

“I think the steroids are affecting me mentally, I feel more angry and irritated”. Mind you, I think most people would say that I’m a pretty mellow guy who gets along.

“Do you want to know the truth?” She asked me. “Of course I do”, I replied. “It’s affecting you a lot. I’ve noticed and the kids have noticed”.

“Good to know”, I said.

You can’t work on a flaw within yourself if you don’t quite know it exists. I feel like we are always kinder to ourselves in our minds and skew our perception. I had an old Filipino friend and co worker and his favorite phrase is “I’m a legend in my own mind”. I love that phrase and think of it when evaluating myself. It’s helpful to have a trusted family member/friend to let you know how the rest of the world perceives you.

Last Tuesday (steroid crash day), I could tell as soon as I was done eating breakfast, today was going to be a challenge day emotionally. I was GRUMPY. I decided that I was mostly going to try and keep to myself so I didn’t share my mental wonders with the family 😜. My poor wife decided she wanted to cheer me up a bit, but the gremlin would not allow it. GRRRRRR is what she got in return.

It is my personal goal to be constantly working on myself, especially mentally, to be in control of my mind. I spend time analyzing myself on why I react to certain situations and how to improve. Being grumpy, mad or sad is just a state of mind (or FEAR, that’s a huge one, needs it’s own post though). With training, you can take yourself from one state of mind to a better one.

I start with of a picture in my mind of who I want to be, to set my goal. That way I can compare the way I am to who I want to be. Certainly no one wants to be an angry grumpy bastard, even on Dex days. Try to improve a little every day and over time you will find yourself a better person.

Overall, I think I’m doing alright mastering myself, still lots of room for improvement, but then again I am a legend in my own mind.

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Megamind

Jothi

About 4 days after my start of the Dara/Pom/Dex regiment started I woke up in the morning feeling awful. Of course that was to be expected having just started chemo again.

I stumbled into the bathroom to wash my face because I thought I had a large amount of sleep in my eyes. Wash wash wash…..hmm this doesn’t seem to be helping. I turned off the water and looked in the mirror to see my head swollen. Oh, what fun! I can’t blink proper because my eyes are swollen.

We called up the infusion center because a swollen head was not on the list of side effects. They said they would talk it over with the pharmacy and get back to me. They called back a short while later and said “we can’t find a swollen head a reaction to any of the drugs”.

I always find it reassuring when the people who are giving you these drugs say “gee, I dunno”. They have me taking zyrtec prior to the Dara injections to stop a allergic reaction. “Just keep taking the zyrtec daily and hope it helps”. Well, it did end up helping (I think), either that or the drugs wore off. My head doesn’t swell anymore, but my face still gets red and puffy one a week. Clearly a reaction to the dex.

I was eating breakfast that morning and I told my kids I should shave my head and dye my skin blue because I feel like Megamind. They agreed it would be a good idea.

What do you think?

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The First Post

Jothi

Well, where to start? My name is Jothi (pronounced Joe-T). I’m married for 20+ years at this point, and we have 4 children aged 12-19. I am a big nature person. I love spending time outdoors, gardening, hiking, going to the beach, exploring. I am also a huge gamer. Games of any type, board games, sports (both playing and watching) and occasional video games.

People who I would like to sit down and have a long conversation with are in no particular order: Dalai Lama, Barack Obama, Warren Buffett, Anita Moorjani, Neil McKinney, Shin Terayama, Ryan Reynolds, Michael Jordan, John Stewart, Helen Jane Long and Steve Kerr.

For my myeloma family out there, I have Lambda Light chain myeloma. Which means I have too many lambda light chains that make up my blood for everyone else. I have the 14;16 translocation in my myeloma genetics, which basically means my myeloma is smarter than standard myeloma and is good at side stepping drugs.

I had 2 lesions when I was diagnosed, one on my 7 rib on my right side and a bigger one on the right side of my sacrum. Sometimes, I think about tumor placement in the body, and while there are worse spots than the sacrum, the sacrum is a terrible spot to have a tumor! I don’t recommend it. That’s the spot where your spinal cord fans out in a fantastic web of nerves. To this day, it’s like a little bird sitting on my shoulder poking me, saying, cancer, cancer, cancer.

I have had radiation on my sacrum and I went through the VRD chemo protocol (Velcade, Dex and revlimid). I elected not to do the stem cell transplant at that time. My lambda light chains at the high point were 470 and my Kapp/Lamb Fr was .01. M-band was 1.4.

About a month ago I started on Dara sq, Pom and Dex. As of last blood draw, my Lambda light chains are 142.52 Kappa Light chains 5.70 and KAPP/LAMB FR is .04. My M-band is 1.4. These numbers are after being off of all Chemo for over 6 months after I had a go with covid and saw that the chemo wasn’t doing anything anyhow.

I’ve had 2 pet scans this year, with the most recent in July. Both have come back showing no cancer activity.

I have become very passionate of diet, nutrition and what actual food is along my brief journey. When I was struggling for a website name, my kids suggested: Eatyourvegetablesdotcom, but it was already taken. But it is definitely my motto.

That’s the gritty numbers post with the information download. I hope my future posts will be a bit more fun and entertaining.

EAT YOUR VEGETABLES!!!