Allopurinol is a medicine that prevents Tumor Lysis Syndrome. As chemotherapy kills cells (hopefully mostly tumor cells) they “lyse” or collapse/explode. The remnants of lysed cells are toxic, and if enough of them accumulate in the body, it can cause TLS, which is apparently very unpleasant. Allopurinol helps the body excrete lysed-cell toxins. Everything I am taking, including the anti-nausea drugs and painkillers, causes constipation, which Colace helps mitigate. Prevacid prevents heartburn. Chemo drugs are “anti-neoplastic drugs” – that is, they kill all “new [cell] plasm” e.g. anything that is rapidly growing or dividing. Tumor cells divide more rapidly than normal cells, so the chemo kills them. It also kills or injures other cells that divide rapidly, including: sperm, mucus membranes in the nose and mouth (sometimes causing sores), and cells of the digestive tract, causing heartburn, indigestion and nausea.
After I wake up and my mother tries to make me eat breakfast, I go to wash up. This used to be simple. Now, because of the catheter in my arm, a full-body shower or bath requires that I have my mother cover my arm with a garbage bag, poke a hole in the bottom, pull my hand out, tape the bag around my wrist and tie the upper opening tight around my upper arm. This keeps the catheter from getting soaked. Taking a bath (with a cup to splash water away from the affected arm) doesn’t really do the job because I also have to wash my hair. I’ll talk more about my hair later, but suffice to say that taking a bath in water covered in a skein of hair like a nightmarish Chemotherapy Sargasso Sea does not make a man feel clean.
2 months ago