Today I finally broke down and bought one of those pill caddies with the separate compartments for the days of the week (and sub-divided into am/pm). I felt like such a senior citizen, but whatever. I was in Walgreen's to pick up a prescription for some ointment anyway, so it seemed fitting. What I also thought was funny was that my dosage for a given compartment in that pill caddy almost exceeds the space available. This is going to really help me not to lay awake at night trying to remember if I took my dosage from that morning. I'm 99% sure I haven't missed a dose yet, but as more medication becomes required to manage side effects, I'm needing another method of organization.
I'm now taking my study medication (RO5185426) twice daily, 12 hours apart, Celebrex to manage the joint pain and tattoo inflammation twice daily with food (if I don't take it with food, it acts like an ex lax). Because it has to be taken with food, I can't put those pills into the pill caddy, they have to be taken with me to places where I am going to be eating. I'm taking prednisolone acetate eye drops twice daily to clear up the conjunctivitis. I'm using clindamycin phosphate lotion twice daily to clear up the in-grown hairs caused from the hair loss. Triamcinolone acetonide twice daily (just started today, this is the ointment I was picking up at Walgreen's) to help control the itching in my tattoos. That's pretty much it.
Recently I got a call from my dermatologist to let me know that they examined, at a microscopic level, what was going on with my tattoos. The tissue they removed from my back had a portion of a tattoo, so they had a chance to get a close look at it. He told me what it was, but it was a lot of medical jargon. He said that he contacted Dr. T to let him know the findings.
While I had him on the phone, I asked him when my very first visit to him was. I've lost track of a lot of the dates in this timeline, and my first visit to his office was what really started this whole process. He said it was May of '08. So the timeline looks something like this:
May '08 was my first mole removal and initial malignant diagnosis. This led to surgery number one in June '08. Then January '09 was when that lump in my neck was discovered. This was my "stage 3" diagnosis, followed by surgery number two in March '09. By April '09 I was in radiation treatments 5 days a week for 5 weeks. Then it was 4 weeks of chemo infusions (5 days a week), then 12 weeks of lighter chemo shots (self-administered 3 times a week). This concluded in November '09 with my grand mal seizure. By May of '10 I was having my third surgery to biopsy another lump in my neck. This is when they saw the metastasis in my lungs (stage 4). I started on my study drug in July '10. In December '10 I had surgery number four to remove that fillet of skin off my back.
I guess I just needed to type that out...
I'm now taking my study medication (RO5185426) twice daily, 12 hours apart, Celebrex to manage the joint pain and tattoo inflammation twice daily with food (if I don't take it with food, it acts like an ex lax). Because it has to be taken with food, I can't put those pills into the pill caddy, they have to be taken with me to places where I am going to be eating. I'm taking prednisolone acetate eye drops twice daily to clear up the conjunctivitis. I'm using clindamycin phosphate lotion twice daily to clear up the in-grown hairs caused from the hair loss. Triamcinolone acetonide twice daily (just started today, this is the ointment I was picking up at Walgreen's) to help control the itching in my tattoos. That's pretty much it.
Recently I got a call from my dermatologist to let me know that they examined, at a microscopic level, what was going on with my tattoos. The tissue they removed from my back had a portion of a tattoo, so they had a chance to get a close look at it. He told me what it was, but it was a lot of medical jargon. He said that he contacted Dr. T to let him know the findings.
While I had him on the phone, I asked him when my very first visit to him was. I've lost track of a lot of the dates in this timeline, and my first visit to his office was what really started this whole process. He said it was May of '08. So the timeline looks something like this:
May '08 was my first mole removal and initial malignant diagnosis. This led to surgery number one in June '08. Then January '09 was when that lump in my neck was discovered. This was my "stage 3" diagnosis, followed by surgery number two in March '09. By April '09 I was in radiation treatments 5 days a week for 5 weeks. Then it was 4 weeks of chemo infusions (5 days a week), then 12 weeks of lighter chemo shots (self-administered 3 times a week). This concluded in November '09 with my grand mal seizure. By May of '10 I was having my third surgery to biopsy another lump in my neck. This is when they saw the metastasis in my lungs (stage 4). I started on my study drug in July '10. In December '10 I had surgery number four to remove that fillet of skin off my back.
I guess I just needed to type that out...