Cancer

"It Starts Again"

Today is a typical gorgeous summer day in Austin. The temperature is 98. I have just finished my first chemo session after a six week hiatus. A late lunch at TinTinTio with an icy cold tea seems ideal. I lift the glass to my lips, then take a deep swallow. DAMN !!! My lips explode with little electric shocks; my throat does the same and rejects the cold fluid. All of this courtesy of the Oxaliplatin I received 5 hours earlier. Damn - here we go again. Oxaliplatin is a recently approved drug, used in conjunction with traditional chemo drugs. While its effectiveness is not yet fully documented, the are a number of cautions to be observed. I seem to have had all of them during my first seven course of treatment. Now it appears that they are all returning after this first resumed session today. Click HERE for the Oxaliplatin cautions and side effects. If you followed this link, you may conclude that Oxaliplatin is some nasty stuff. Blood Results - CBC 07/14/2004 Great news !! My platelets are at 106. They should be at least 142, but my oncologist will authorize chemotherapy if they are above 100. This the highest they have been since the beginning of June. Sadly, the are returning to normal because we stopped the chemo. What will they be next week? The hemoglobin is at 12.3, which is in the normal range for women, but still less than two points below the expected range for men. Nevertheless, this too is the highest reading I have had since last year. Once again, a direct result of resting from chemo. The immune system continues upward, though it is still compromised. What will resuming chemo do to all this good news? Conversations and My Thoughts Throughout my 6 week hiatus from the bi-weekly chemo sessions, I have enjoyed a return to feeling good. I feel terrific physically and mentally. My thought processes are clearing, enabling me to function at levels I expect of myself. I do not want to and will not, return to that foggy disorientation that hobbled me so insidiously during the first seven sessions. This I told to my oncologist. He said he understood, and agreed to a point. Though his preference is to continue with the chemo sessions, but to schedule them to every three or four weeks, instead of bi-weekly. His hope is that this extended schedule will provide sufficient time to recover from the damage caused by the previous session. We agreed that I will do the session today, then determine if and when the next session occurs, based on how I feel at that time. I said that, if the mental degradation began again, I would stop the chemo - for good. There are still many things I wish to do. Things for me, things with family and friends. The effects of chemo prevent all of those things from happening. Chemo eradicates opportunities to spend quality time with my family and friends, to visit places that I have always wanted to see and to live life out to the fullest. I will not allow chemo to deprive me of those same opportunities, regardless of the consequences. This is simply not open for discussion. And So Forth Here I sit at my PC writing this little Blog. I have my pump attached, merrily infusing 5FU (an appropriate name) for the next 46 hours. I slept from 15:00 to 19:15 this afternoon. My fingers have some numbness, the mucous lining of my digestive tract is being destroyed. I am incredibly thirsty, but must make do with warm water or some teas; nothing cold. I guess we'll just observe the extent of the invasiveness of this round of chemotherapy. I am scheduled for my weekly blood tests on the 21st, 28th and 4th of August. At the moment, we are planning another chemo session on August 4. We'll see. We will see .......

"It Starts Again"

Today is a typical gorgeous summer day in Austin. The temperature is 98. I have just finished my first chemo session after a six week hiatus. A late lunch at TinTinTio with an icy cold tea seems ideal. I lift the glass to my lips, then take a deep swallow. DAMN !!! My lips explode with little electric shocks; my throat does the same and rejects the cold fluid. All of this courtesy of the Oxaliplatin I received 5 hours earlier.

Damn - here we go again.

Oxaliplatin is a recently approved drug, used in conjunction with traditional chemo drugs. While its effectiveness is not yet fully documented, the are a number of cautions to be observed. I seem to have had all of them during my first seven course of treatment. Now it appears that they are all returning after this first resumed session today. Click HERE for the Oxaliplatin cautions and side effects. If you followed this link, you may conclude that Oxaliplatin is some nasty stuff.

Blood Results - CBC 07/14/2004

Great news !! My platelets are at 106. They should be at least 142, but my oncologist will authorize chemotherapy if they are above 100. This the highest they have been since the beginning of June. Sadly, the are returning to normal because we stopped the chemo. What will they be next week?

The hemoglobin is at 12.3, which is in the normal range for women, but still less than two points below the expected range for men. Nevertheless, this too is the highest reading I have had since last year. Once again, a direct result of resting from chemo.

The immune system continues upward, though it is still compromised.

What will resuming chemo do to all this good news?

Conversations and My Thoughts

Throughout my 6 week hiatus from the bi-weekly chemo sessions, I have enjoyed a return to feeling good. I feel terrific physically and mentally. My thought processes are clearing, enabling me to function at levels I expect of myself. I do not want to and will not, return to that foggy disorientation that hobbled me so insidiously during the first seven sessions. This I told to my oncologist.

He said he understood, and agreed to a point. Though his preference is to continue with the chemo sessions, but to schedule them to every three or four weeks, instead of bi-weekly. His hope is that this extended schedule will provide sufficient time to recover from the damage caused by the previous session. We agreed that I will do the session today, then determine if and when the next session occurs, based on how I feel at that time. I said that, if the mental degradation began again, I would stop the chemo - for good.

There are still many things I wish to do. Things for me, things with family and friends. The effects of chemo prevent all of those things from happening. Chemo eradicates opportunities to spend quality time with my family and friends, to visit places that I have always wanted to see and to live life out to the fullest.

I will not allow chemo to deprive me of those same opportunities, regardless of the consequences. This is simply not open for discussion.

And So Forth

Here I sit at my PC writing this little Blog. I have my pump attached, merrily infusing 5FU (an appropriate name) for the next 46 hours. I slept from 15:00 to 19:15 this afternoon. My fingers have some numbness, the mucous lining of my digestive tract is being destroyed. I am incredibly thirsty, but must make do with warm water or some teas; nothing cold. I guess we'll just observe the extent of the invasiveness of this round of chemotherapy. I am scheduled for my weekly blood tests on the 21st, 28th and 4th of August. At the moment, we are planning another chemo session on August 4. We'll see.

We will see .......

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