The kingdom of the sick

“Illness is the night side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.”
― Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor

Not being a big fan of New Years Eve I am not bothered to make an occasion out of it. I went to bed as usual around 10pm but got up to watch the multi coloured fire works fizzing and exploding into the dark smokey sky from my bedroom window.  I prefer New Years Day and the grey quiet days that follow, the seasonal frenzy is over and there are no diaries to be found anywhere in the shops!  It is a good opportunity to take stock of what has passed and what the new year might hold for me, 2016 was an annus horriblis for the world and for me health wise.  My last post was in May 2016 At last some good news and I am not even going to attempt to catch up in any detail.

Treatment wise, I continue on Revlimid, the much hated Dexamethasone and for the last few cycles a traditional chemo agent called Cyclophosphamide to try and strengthen the Revlimid and avoid the need for a double dose of Dex which I found unbearable. The boss describes my disease as stable but I feel like I am on the usual rollercoaster, my light chains varying each cycle between 100 to 800, bobbing up and down, currently 404mg/litre at the end of the 15th cycle. Although I find this treatment regime a real struggle and the toughest yet, I know I need to keep on it for as long as it is holding my disease stable before switching to a new treatment otherwise my options will start to run out fast. I have come to terms with the fact that I will most likely be on treatment for the rest of my life, that there will never be a period of drug free remission or my light chains getting into normal range, the best I can hope for is that any new treatment regime I start isn’t as hard as this one, perhaps more effective and gives me better quality of life.

I saw an excellent musical last year called  A Pacifists Guide to the War on Cancer. A funny and moving examination of life with cancer with a great song about entering the kingdom of the sick and hoping at some point to return to the kingdom of the well or maybe not. I was interested by the idea which I thought the writer of the play had come up with but later discovered that Susan Sontag wrote about in her essay, Illness as Metaphor.  Last year, more so than at any other time since my diagnosis I feel I have taken up permanent residence in this metaphoric kingdom which unless you have stayed there is I imagine hard to understand. I mean I look well don’t I?  It is a world where every day I am aware of my health, managing my health is a full time job. The hospital appointments and stays (four emergency admissions to hospital last year), countless blood tests, copious amounts of medication, persistent and continual viral infections, self administered daily injections, infusions, chronic gut issues, fatigue, insomnia, low mood and anxiety and so much waiting. Waiting to feel better, waiting for results, waiting for appointments, waiting in pharmacy, waiting for a bad moment to pass, waiting can be exhausting. I’m not saying it’s all grim, it is just different. I’ve got friends here, family too, I don’t have to pretend to be upbeat and I feel safe. We can share our experiences, our illnesses and our fears and disappointments without boring anyone except ourselves. I can be authentic.

I am increasingly disconnected from the well world. Fatigue, chemo brain,  loss of confidence and not being able to do the things I used to do in it contribute to this. I am happy for my friends currently in good health who are enjoying their lives, their work, pursuing their interests and passions but I’ll admit to a touch of envy and self pity too. I wouldn’t want them to not talk about stuff that they are doing or planning to do but it reminds me that I am not able plan anything like “normal “people do, much more than a few days in advance or arranging something then having to cancel it or not go, because of infection, steroid crashing or simply being too tired.

I am frequently asked where I’m off to next on my travels, anything planned? Answer is that it has become more difficult, more trouble than pleasure whilst on this treatment. Travel insurance is expensive, flying increases the risk of infection, I need to consider access to medical centres if I get ill and then there is the fatigue, steroid mood swings and gut issues that get in the way of enjoying the holiday and spoiling it for the people I am with.The desire is outweighed by the obstacles. Having said that I did have a lovely time in Cornwall in the summer last year, a road trip of sorts in my fancy new (to me) convertible and then the ferry over to the beautiful Scilly Isles. Swimming, walking, cycling and lots of boat trips to the remote off islands.  Because I was away for nearly three weeks, some of the time on my own, I didn’t matter if I had a bad day because there was time for me to have a good day.  In early September, a spontaneous break 0n my own to Copenhagen, the cheap flight which spurred me proving to be a false economy! I got to see some of the locations where my favourite Nordic noir dramas were filmed and ate lots of pickled herrings.

Since Copenhagen I have not been anywhere, apart from a spell in hospital with a high temperature when I got back. After several years of thinking about getting a dog or a cat, I finally decided on a older rescue cat and set aside October and November to settle her in. I was looking for a grey, minimalist, sleek, shorthaired cat and ended up with a very pretty fluffy white and ginger furry toy but I couldn’t be happier despite a rocky start when she nearly had as many health issues as me! She has transformed my life and I feel less lonely because of her presence. Stroking her and listening to her soft guttural purring is a great stress reliever. So here is me and Meg and just Meg.

In spite of all the moaning about the world I now inhabit, there are, have been and will be times of enjoyment and pleasure, things to appreciate and be grateful for. It is better if I try not to think of the future or the past and concentrate on living in the present. My focus must be on what I can do, not what I can’t do anymore and also not to give myself a hard time if I don’t “do” anything at all! In the words of Alan Bennett I’m keeping on keeping on.

Advertisement

Dexamethasone: the good, the bad and the ugly

I have a hate/hate relationship with Dexamethasone, but I have to acknowledge that it has knocked my light chains down all on its own prior to starting treatment  and whether I like it or not, it is part of my treatment and I have to get on with it. This is about my relationship with Dex.

The Good Stuff

Dexamethasone is a corticosteroid seemingly used in all treatment combinations for myeloma and sometimes on its own, in fact Dexamethasone, given in high doses, is the most active single agent for the treatment of myeloma.  I find this quite astonishing given the development of the many new drugs over recent years.  Dex also increases the ability of chemotherapeutic agents to destroy myeloma cells as well as helping reduce inflammation and allergic reactions to chemotherapy. Quite why or how it is so effective in the treatment of myeloma nobody seems to know.  It appears to cause programmed cell death, also known as apoptosis and can trigger the destruction of myeloma cells.  So that is really good.  I know this absolutely as before I started treatment waiting for the trial to start I was given two 4 day courses of Dex with about a month in between to try and keep the myeloma under control. Before I started the second course my light chains had gone sky high to 6400 but a couple of weeks later they had dropped to 2900.

However it does come with many strings attached in the form of side effects. The good ones for me are:-

1. More energy on the days I take them. I don’t take them everyday but on days 1,2,4,5,8,9,11 and 12 of my 21 day cycle, I take them on the day I have Velcade and the day after. Thanks to Dex, I have danced, stayed up later than usual, played tennis,  tidied up the garden for the winter and cooked dinner for friends.  Dex has helped overcome the fatigue caused by the chemotherapy. I am usually more upbeat and confident on dex days.

2. Erm, can’t think of anymore good things………

Although not a side effect, I quite like the fact that the tablets I take are supplied by Onyx (the trial sponsors) and the writing on the box is in German with a leaflet stuck  onto the box in many languages. The tablets are also quite pretty as they have a curvy criss cross pattern and they are 5mg per tablet whereas the UK standard ones are 2mg. My trial bloods are sent to a lab in France to be tested so I feel as if I am participating in some special stylish european project!

The Bad

1. Insomnia and sleep disturbance. I am often wide awake at 3 or 4 in the morning, unable to get back to sleep but also unable to do anything useful with this time other than stressing about how I am going to get up for work in the morning.

2. Dex gives me an insatiable appetite for sugary junk food and this is precisely the kind of food that I shouldn’t be eating at the moment because I have steroid induced diabetes. Dex raises my blood sugar levels on the days I take it and I have to be careful what I eat ie cut out the sugary, refined foods which are what I crave.  I monitor my blood sugar levels with a testing kit although it has never been made clear to me what I should do if they are too high or what symptoms I might experience. The docs wanted to put me on Insulin but I said I would try and manage it through diet. However on the days I don’t take dex, I eat plenty of cake and anything else I can find in the cupboard or the fridge.

3. Following on from the above, not surprisingly is weight gain, can’t sleep, have something to eat, crave food, raid the fridge etc etc, I can still find plenty of non sugary junk food to eat. Weight gain is pretty common on steroids, unfortunately corticosteroids are not the type of steroids which can turn fat into muscle, I think those are anabolic steroids.

4. Muscle wasting,  I have gone from a fit triathlon competitor to a soggy shape in the space of a few months. Oh how the mighty have fallen!

5. On from the above, I wish I could channel the energy that dex gives into doing some exercise but unfortunately another side effect that I experience is heavy legs, they sometimes feel like they are filled with concrete which of course makes it difficult to run, walk or do anything much.

6. Slightly blurred vision, like my glasses always need cleaning.

7. Hirsutism and thinning of hair on the scalp.  I have more facial hair and a faint moustache but my hair is thinning on my scalp. Not very attractive!

8. Red round face, often called a moon face, the classic sign of taking steroids. People on steroids should have their own Moonies cult!

Whilst googling images of a moon face, I came across this image below about Cushings Syndrome which is a hormonal disorder caused by prolonged exposure of the body’s tissues to high levels of the hormone cortisol. Long term use of dexamethasone can lead to Cushings Syndrome and it appears that I already have quite a few of the symptoms!

What I experience above is awful but I can put up with having a moon face (with a moustache), being overweight and exhausted in the knowledge that Dex is helping my treatment work and when I stop taking it these symptoms will eventually disappear.  In the meantime I can work on my vanity issues!

The Ugly

This is much harder to deal with.  The ugly happens more when I am withdrawing from dex especially in week 3 of my cycle.  My consultant wrote on the consent form that I signed before starting treatment that it caused “emotional lability”, the medical definition of which is “a condition of excessive emotional reactions and frequent mood changes”.

I guess that sums up my experience in a clinical way although my mood doesn’t alter much between low and high, more like low and really low. I am depressed, tired and shaky, mentally and physically,  I am easily irritated by myself and others, restless and edgy.  Nothing I do or say feels right but I don’t know  what would feel right.  I find it difficult to be with people because I feel socially inept and lacking in confidence.  My voice is gruff (another side effect) and my hearing slightly dulled so there is a real sense of being disconnected.  I note I referred to feeling disconnected in my last post as well, Nothing to say and wonder if that was the dex effect too without me realising it?

I have to keep reminding myself that what I am experiencing is a purely chemical reaction in my body to the lack of the steroid it has become accustomed to and that once I stop taking it eventually I will return to my “normal” state of mind. Not sure what that is these days as this year so far has been full of emotional turbulence. Whatever it is, I look forward to finding out, who wants to be normal anyway!

“It may be normal, darling; but I’d rather be natural.”
― Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s