Friday, April 10, 2015

Today's Return on a $20,000 Investment

So today was oncology day, which means that by 10:00 am I'd spent twenty grand by doing little more than sitting. (The nurse laughed when I told her that the little bag of drug didn't look like $13,000.) But in addition to drug and attention, the money did buy me some information. Specifically:

1. The highlights in my PA's hair have gone from green to a very snazzy electric blue. 

2. All my labs -- well, blood glucose excepted -- are all trending positive, and are at levels indicating that I'm continuing to be a "good responder" to the treatments they're giving me. 

3. The cafe at SCCA is actually pretty good, though they charge an arm and a leg for greek yogurt (which appears to be a small batch product from some local dairy). 

4. Although it's hard to distinguish clearly, the PA thinks most of the side effects I'm dealing with are long-term reactions to the oxaliplatin rather than new reactions to the Xeloda capecitabine (I'm actually taking the generic version). On the one hand this strikes me as good news, but on the other it annoys me. When they start you on chemo, they don't tell you you'll be dealing with the side effects for months after the treatment stops. 

5. The PA tells me I don't have to worry if a leg of the GCW Tour extends the gap between rounds of capecitabine doses. This is good as I've started booking Spain & Morocco and there's no way possible to make it sync up with the currently projected dosing schedule. 

Item #2 is really the intended return on the $20,000 investment. Still not totally sure it's completely worth it, but as far as returns go it could certainly be a lot worse.

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