Today was my final day of using the clinical trial mouth rinse to minimize mouth sores. I’ve been using the rinse once a day for the past 14 days. A home health nurse has been coming to my home each day to monitor sores in my mouth, take vital signs, and observe the 30-second mouth rinse procedure. Today, and last Tuesday, I used the rinse at The Vanderbilt Clinic. Amy swapped my left and right inside cheek areas to obtain samples for testing. Also, 90-minutes after using the rinse, they drew blood samples.

I don’t know if I can attribute my minimal mouth sores to the trial mouth rinse or not, but my mouth and tongue have been better this round of chemo. I just hope the other preventative steps I’ve been taking will minimize/eliminate mouth sores during my next round of chemo.

I also saw Dr. Rachael, oncologist, today. Dr. Barbara is on her honeymoon this week and next week. My white blood cell count was up even higher this week to 12.3 from 10.8 last week. However, this week my red blood cell count was slightly below normal like it was two weeks ago. Other than that, everything was okay.

Feeling good today and eating well. As long as I don’t run up and down the stairs, I’ve not been fatigued today.

This morning I had three appointments at The Vanderbilt Clinic. First, my weekly blood tests. Good news again on my white blood cell count was 10.8 – which is very normal and dramatically higher than the 0.8 reading I had one week after my first round of chemotherapy.

Next, I met with Amy and Glenda about the mouth rinse clinical trial that I’m participating in. So far only a small sore on the tip of my tongue that I first noticed this morning. Amy swabbed my mouth -like getting a DNA sample on a detective show. Then mixing the mouth rinse ingredients – 3 of them – and rinsing for 30 seconds. Now I wait for 90 minutes before additional blood is drawn.

While waiting, Dr. Rachel arrives for my weekly oncology followup consultation. Blood work is looking good. I have a sore spot on my butt so she give me a prescription for that. Then we ask about timing for the radiation phase of my treatment. Beverly has the details. The third round of chemotherapy starts May 25. Radiation typically starts three weeks later just as if I was going to have another round of chemotherapy. We will need to get the exact start date from the radiation oncologist. To add a bit of complexity to the situation, the radiation suite at Vanderbilt was heavily damaged during our recent floods here in Nashville. The satellite clinic in Franklin is currently seeing patients from 6am to midnight. Hopefully the Vanderbilt clinic will be repaired soon. I will receive chemotherapy once per week and radiation five times per week for seven weeks.

We (Mary and I) finished all of the above by about 10:45, just in time for me to get on a conference call at 11am as Mary drove us home!

An unexpected doctor’s visit was required when my temporary crown chipped while eating lunch. Thankfully, Dr. Sonia’s team was able to squeeze me in this afternoon and repaired the problem crown.

I did also get some work done, but all in all a busy day. Thankfully the fatigue was much less today!

The sun is shining, finally, and I’m feeling good so let’s go the the dentist (again)! Dr. Sonia removed two more old mercury-silver amalgam fillings and fitted me for crowns on two teeth in the upper left jaw. I think these are my first crowns every, and one more is planned for the lower left jaw.

Flooding is very bad in Nashville and much of middle Tennessee. Fortunately, we did not suffer any serious damage, just some water in the crawl space. The water has receded from the Little Harpeth River so we can now get in and out of our subdivision. The streets at the subdivision entrance were flooded for two days.

Thank goodness I’m feeling great again today. I made my second of many trips to the dentist to remove all the old fillings with metal in them. Altogether I will have fillings replaced in nine teeth. Three yesterday and two today, so I’m half way there (almost). I say almost because the two today require a crown so I will need to return in a couple of weeks to have the permanent crown installed.

Why all the filling replacements? According to my radiation oncologist, the metal in my teeth will not play pretty with the radiation treatments that I will receive in June and July. So out with old and in with the new porcelain fillings. I’m trying to get as many of them replaced while I’m feeling good. My next chemotherapy treatment is next Wednesday. I’d like to get them all the old fillings removed before then. I have a third appointment on Monday and I’m hoping the dentist will have a cancellation on Tuesday so I can get the 8th and 9th tooth repaired.

I was worried about how painful it would be, but the miracles of modern dentistry have keep the pain to a very tolerable level.