So I'm back in the infusion center for a second attempt at Cycle 9. Unfortunately, the four week vacation hasn't really made a difference in how I react to these cycles. The nurse hadn't even begun to draw blood for the required pre-chemo lab tests and I already felt lousy.
How can saline make you feel lousy? It can't, but it does.
Ah well. The line's in and the blood's been drawn and now I'm just waiting for the (notoriously late) oncologist to get the results and let me know if we're good to go for another cycle, or if my test results will again send me home. And if that's the case, it'll be time to talk conversion to pills. Based on what the SCCA-guy said, going six or eight weeks without doing anything to the cancer is not a good choice.
But we'll see...
8:32 am
Checked in with the oncology clinic, waiting, and reading a reprint from a Ladies Home Journal article about hospice care. Only slightly terrifying...
8:39 am
Checked in. It seems the eggnog lattes are catching up with me. Back to 224 pounds. At least no one can accuse me of wasting away. Back to waiting, this time for the doc to arrive.
8:44 am
While we're waiting for the doc, I thought I'd re-post the new Star Wars trailer released this past weekend, since there's nothing like a new Star Wars movie to convince an American male born in the sixties that they need to try to stay alive at least until the movie is released. And for the record, not a fan of the new light saber...
8:48 am
Back to waiting...
9:27 am
Big good news: This will be my last chemotherapy infusion. Next time, they'll move me onto the pill version of the one chemo drug and drop the other. I'll still get an infusion of Avastin (assuming my urine protein isn't out of whack), but that only takes a half an hour and will only be every third week.
Big bad news: At risk of being blunt, they still figure I'm basically dying. It seems the challenge with chemo, like so many things, is that the effects basically follow a curve defined by the equation f(x) = 1/x or, for those of you that have a hard time visualizing a curve based on it's defining equation (like me, as I had to look all this up), this:
The general consensus of my various oncologists is that I'm probably out somewhere near the 4 or 5 on that graph above, and so the impact of the chemo drugs I'm currently on is waning. So whether I go one or two more is more or less irrelevant.
The bigger problem is that they'll move me on to the pill version and, in all likelihood, it'll have a significant impact to start, and then slowly fade. As today's oncologist put it, "eventually you'll have to decide what to do."
My reading is that "decide what to do" is a euphemism for "go back on chemo or die" (or possibly just "die").
Of course, based on a sample of one, I suppose it's possible that my cancer will continue to respond to the pills and eventually I'll be determined to be cancer-free. Hope springs eternal.
Other bad news: Xeloda, the pill form of the 5-FU cancer drug, is not without its side effects. Most significantly, sores; both the weird mouth sores I've previously warned you not to Google, but also a weird rash that can turn into blisters and then broken blisters that breaks out on the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet.
So you give up tingling, painful fingers and toes, and instead get open sores on your palms and feet. Interesting trade off. If it weren't for the fact that I'm also giving up the 46 hour infusion (which I hate), I'm not sure I'd make the trade. But I gotta get off the infusion pump.
That's next time, though. For now, it's the standard infusion of Avastin, the chemo drug with the long complicated name I can't remember, and then the 46 hour infusion of 5-FU. But at least it'll be the last time -- at least for now. Hard to see choosing "go back on chemo" when it comes time to "decide what to do," but stranger things have happened.
9:59 am
Waiting on the drugs to be delivered so the infusion can start.
With nothing better to do, I looked up the side effects of Xeloda. Here's the list of common sided effects I found: low blood cell count, fatigue, diarrhea, hand-foot syndrome (this is the weird rash/sore thing described above), nausea, vomiting, dermatitis, and elevated liver enzymes.
The less common side effects included: poor appetite, abdominal pain, low white blood cell count, low platelet count, mouth sores, neuropathy, swelling of the feet and ankles, fever, constipation, eye irritation, shortness of breath, headache, muscle or bone pain, dizziness, insomnia, dehydration, cough, blood clots, excessive sleepiness, confusion, seizures, loss of balance, nail changes, darkening of the skin, taste changes.
And now I'm a lot less optimistic about Xeloda.
Back to waiting and looking at YouTube videos. No more Xeloda research.
10:19 am
Waiting...
10:22 am
Speaking of Star Wars, there is the very reasonable question of why, given the experience of the three prequels, anyone would have any interest in "Episode VII." The obvious answer is, George Lucas is no longer directing (if he's involved at all). By way of illustration, since nothing popular posted to YouTude can exist for long without a parody version appearing, here's the "George Lucas version" of the Episode VII teaser.
10:29 am
The drugs have arrived.
10:45 am
I was going to have an update -- and even wrote a paragraph -- but I changed my mind. But I'm not sure how to abandon that process once it's started without potentially losing the entire post. So this is a non-update update to keep the software happy.
The Avastin continues to flow.
11:10 am
The Avastin is done, so were on to the oxaliplatin. Two hours and counting.
11:57 am
I obviously used the last 45 minutes of infusion time to create my holiday card. (Enjoy!) The drugs are still dripping. Not much else to report at this time.
1:13 pm
And that's it. The infusion is done so now they just have to hook me up to the portable pump -- for the last time (yay!) -- and I'm out the door. Easier to do all that without a computer on my lap, so I'm calling what should be the last of my liveblogs done.
May the force be with you...
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