Taking care

There’s nothing to say about today’s chemo session.  It was uneventful, exactly like two weeks ago.  After working a little and trying to read, I slept through most of it.  Before I dozed off, the nurse gave me some advice on skin care.

First of all, she said I was looking good.  Many patients have much more serious skin problems than I do.  They have pustules all over the face, down their necks, and sometimes on the rest of their bodies.  Some suffer from extreme dryness that can spread to the fingertips and the soles of their feet.  In the worst cases, the skin can break.  This is a gradual process.  Though progression is not necessarily linear, I might be in for worse as the therapy continues.

To help the skin and avoid the worst, the nurse gave me a set of care products provided by Amgen, the maker (or maybe not – production might be outsourced) of the anti-EGFR antibody that causes these symptoms.  I have to say thank you to Amgen a second time.  The set is really nice.  Once corona is defeated, I can use the bag on my travels.

Amgen wants me to take care of my skin.

The set contains a fancy skin cream, a body lotion, a cleanser that can only be purchased in a pharmacy, and sunscreen.  I will most of them assiduously.  Normally, I’m not much of a skin care person, but with the limited action I’ve taken over the last few days, I can already see benefits.  There is no reason to suffer unduly or run around with a face like a juicy pizza.

The second topic I discussed today was influenza.  In Switzerland, there’s a big push to get more people vaccinated than in normal years. The country’s health authority has ordered twice as many vaccine doses as last year.  In Germany, the picture is similar.  The aim is to vaccinate significantly more people than usually.  The rationale behind this is twofold.  First, for corona patients, whose numbers are expected to rise in the cold season, to get the best care, the health system needs to be protected from flu patients.  Second, testing capacity should be reserved for patients likely to be infected with corona.  A ton of flu patients with similar symptoms might overwhelm testing.

To me, this doesn’t make much sense.  People are acutely aware of the presence and possible danger of corona.  Most take good protective measures to avoid infections.  These precautions are equally effective against influenza.  Add to this that influenza is much less infectious than corona, and I’m convinced that we won’t be seeing much of a flu season this winter.  Seeing this way, corona will thus save lives – though fewer than it has already claimed.  I will not get vaccinated.  My doctor didn’t disagree.  He didn’t see a pressing need either.

The only difference between today’s chemo session and all previous ones was the starting time.  I’ve never begun therapy after lunch.  While fasting, lunch is a bit of a hypothetical concept, but it still nicely divides the day.  There are good and bad aspects to starting late.  One good thing is that I could work for half a day – and work is fun.  Another good thing is that my period of dead-tiredness after therapy is shorter.  I go to bed a few hours after returning from the hospital.  The bad thing is that I’ll have to wait until tomorrow night to break my fast.  I fear a rather long and unpleasant day.