[Breeze]

October 13, 2016

Yesterday was a long day...had to head down to Emory after dropping the kids off at school because with traffic 10 A.M. across town is a difficult thing to judge. We ended up at Emory about 40 minutes early, but we checked in and were quickly taken into the Phase 1 treatment center, which will be my treatment location for everything (sans scans) moving forward.

Everything started as it always does with a check on my vitals:

Blood Pressure - 133/92 (ok this was extremely high, but I put it down to stress and having to drive for 1.5 hours in Atlanta traffic)
Weight - 186
Oxygen - not checked
Pulse - not checked

Next, blood was drawn for labs and sent off to be examined. In fact, we had to wait for them to be returned before we could proceed. They came back clean, so I was then given an EKG, which also checked out fine. Then the pills were delivered, and I took my first one. I did find out that I am on the strongest does they offer - 2 x 250mg. Apparently they offer 2 x 200 mg and 1 x 250 as options. I'm guessing I'll continue on my 2 x 250 as long as my body can deal with it.

About 30 minutes after taking the pill 2 things happened. First, I had a slight twinge of pain in my right ear/jaw/neck, which quickly went away. Second, I had...how to describe this...it wasn't a feeling of euphoria, it wasn't that strong, but there was definitely a bit of a buzz. Initially, I thought it was caused by the pill, but after some reflection and not experiencing the same thing after taking 2 more I believe it was actually caused by 2 things:

1. A stress relief - having gone almost 2 months from diagnosis to treatment, I was probably more stressed than I realized and by taking a pill I knew I was finally doing something about it so my stress dropped

2. Adrenaline - Having taken a pill of that strength and knowing how important it was for me moving forward, being concerned about the side effects, and similar concerns and thoughts, I believe I had a bit of an adrenaline rush.

A second EKG was done 2 hours after taking the pill, then I was released. Also had a second set of vitals taken this time my blood pressure was 118/82...

For the most part things have been good. I won't get into what has happened, I don't want to disgust anyone, but even it wasn't terrible. I am at work today, but I came in late not wanting to be trapped in the car in traffic for an extended period of time. Thankfully, the owner of the company was accommodating. I'll probably need to continue that practice for a while until I have a better understanding of what my new normal is.

One other note, the jaw pain returned last night which I thought was odd. I can also tell it is still there a bit today as well (though I can easily ignore it). I'm just not sure if this is related to the pill or just a coincidence (this is part of that not knowing what is normal anymore).

Hopefully, things continue to go well. Thanks for all the well wishes guys. They are appreciated more than you know.