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Chemo is Weird, Y'all

2023-06-02 (said on 2023-06-01 — implied: date said in the video; uploaded 1 day later) · letter vlog · Hank · 4:51 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life · mode: Personal update · tags: heavy topic, self promotion

On the eve of his second chemotherapy dose, Hank explains his every-other-Friday regimen, lists his five weirdest side effects (hiccups, red urine and sweat, salivary gland pain, urethra pain, sore mouth), names fatigue as the hardest, and stresses that chemo experiences differ.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hank's chemo schedule and why it is dosed hard with a week off

  • ★★★ Hank's chemotherapy hits him hard on a Friday, then he gets a Friday off, then he is dosed hard again the Friday after. — 00:00:00 · chemotherapy
  • ★★ Hank explains that his four chemo drugs interfere with rapidly dividing cells, mostly cancer cells but also some normal cells, which makes patients feel sick. — 00:00:00 · chemotherapy, cancer
  • ★★ Hank says the off week lets patients recover, so they stay in treatment, feel less bad and avoid complications from piled-up side effects. — 00:00:29 · chemotherapy
  • ★★ Hank feels nearly normal now, before his next dose at 9 a.m. tomorrow. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — How the schedule fits Vlogbrothers; mistaking chemo malaise for laziness

  • ★★ Hank says the schedule suits Vlogbrothers: a full week of recovery before his first video (maybe next week (week of 5 June 2023)), then two weeks before the next. (hedged) — 00:00:58 · Vlogbrothers

00:01:27 — Top five weirdest chemo side effects: hiccups, red urine and sweat, salivary gland pain, urethra pain

  • ★★ By day six Hank blamed his bad feelings on laziness; now feeling much better while just as lazy, he tells past and future Hank it was the chemo. (playful) — 00:01:27
  • ★ Hank says dexamethasone is kind of a chemotherapy drug but is mostly taken to hold back nausea and feel better after treatment. — 00:01:27 · chemotherapy
  • ★★ Hank had intractable hiccups from dexamethasone: already about 12 bouts lasting over 30 minutes across two days. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Hank explains red urine during chemo: one drug is red and can come out in urine and sweat, enough to make sweat pink. — 00:01:56
  • ★ Hank says hippos have pink sweat that protects them from the sun, maybe so they don't get skin cancer. (hedged) — 00:02:26
  • ★★ Hank had salivary gland pain: seeing food made his recovering glands produce saliva, which physically hurt. — 00:02:26
  • ★★ Hank thought he had a UTI, but chemo can simply make the urethra hurt. — 00:02:26 · chemotherapy

00:03:01 — Sore mouth, headache and fatigue as the hardest side effect; chemo differs between people; hair loss due

  • ★★ Hank's last weird side effect is a sore mouth: tongue and undertongue feel bad, though he has not had mouth sores. — 00:03:01
  • ★★ Hank has been lucky to be mostly spared nausea. — 00:03:01
  • ★★ Hank has had a headache the whole time, though it is much less bad than it was. — 00:03:01
  • ★★★ For Hank the biggest and hardest side effect is fatigue: it does not feel possible to be that tired. — 00:03:01
  • ★★ Hank compares the fatigue to when he had COVID: it is hard even to move his arm to grab a Gatorade bottle. — 00:03:39 · COVID-19 pandemic
  • ★★ Hank says he is not putting on a brave face: he feels better because it is the last day before the next dose. — 00:03:39
  • ★★★ Hank stresses that chemo regimens, drugs and responses differ greatly between people, so he is not representing a universal experience. — 00:03:39 · chemotherapy
  • ★★ Hank says he has been told hair loss begins on day 14, which is tomorrow. — 00:03:39
  • ★★ Hank told his son Orin about the hair loss; Orin asked when it grows back and was fine on hearing it will, eventually. — 00:03:39 · Orin Green

00:04:21 — Orin on hair loss, sign-off and garden photos of flowers and bees

  • ★ Hank concludes that if Orin felt fine and he feels fine, everybody should feel fine. (playful) — 00:04:21 · Orin Green
  • ★★ Showing garden photos of flowers and bees, Hank is glad this happened in nice weather; winter would have been miserable. — 00:04:21

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Central: chemotherapy

Also: cancer · COVID-19 pandemic · dexamethasone · Gatorade · hippopotamus · Orin Green

Only in the description or credits: Crash Course coin

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