Last comments pre-poison...

It was a nice 48 hours, taking only a couple of pills neither of which would harm me.

GI tract ALMOST fully back to normal (basically takes four weeks from date of transplant, or roughly a month from Melphalan, about what I expeted). Taste has mostly returned although I do have that lingering sense of bitterness on the back of my tongue that flares up every once in a while.

My back pain has worsened. I did some lifting (boxes and children) around the house so that could have aggravated it -- my muscle tone is shot to hell so it may just be that physical therapy is needed before I can do much of anything. It starts off okay in the morning and gets worse through the day, so that is an argument against cancer / bones breaking and in favor of physical therapy being needed. But in any case it was severe enough yesterday that I had to take a couple of courses of Tylenol (including one to be able to sleep). I might even welcome the MRI in a couple of weeks time. Maybe. :)

The Thalidomide arrived yesterday, so today I start the poison. This time only 20mg of Dex versus the 40mg used in primary therapy, but I'm sure it will be enough to further wither my muscles -- which is fine, so long as it further withers the cancer, I suppose. And then this evening the Thalidomide. The dose is reduced (100mg versus 200mg) but it's every day for three weeks instead of for four days...and this has me worried about neuropathy, so I started taking MetaNx last night and will take both that and, when Jill returns from the pharmacy today, Cymbalta as well to ward off those effects.

I'm a little worried about the Cymbalta, too...it's primary use is as an anti-depressant. When I took it for four days to help with neuropathy, I didn't worry about it. But if I'm on this for three weeks, it will be a more complicated thing to wean myself off of it...for that reason I might take one every other day instead.

[10 minutes passage of time here]

Okay, so I've researched them both. MetaNx is successful in relieving neuropathy symptoms among diabetics -- it's unclear how much it prevents neuropathy other than relieves symptoms. Cymbalta is more of a temporary relief thing, and definitely a palliative rather than a preventative. That means: MetaNX yes, Cymbalta not needed. If I experience any neuropathy whatsoever, I call the clinic and they'll cut the dose, damn it!

Onward.