Round 3 session 6 - Back at it!

This week has been a better week as I had the opportunity to talk to the Drs and I was able to go ahead with Session 6 of my Chemo treatment after a two week hiatus due to WBC count being too low.

Monday morning I went to TOH to visit my bloodletter friends.  Our visit was brief but efficient and they put a rush on the results as I was seeing Dr Jonker in a few hours.  He would judge if my Tuesday morning Chemo would go forward or not based on those results.   In the interim I received a phone call to see if I could move my Dr Auer appointment to sometime before Dr Jonker appointment.  I agreed and trotted up to the Cancer Assessment Clinic that she was participating in at the TOH.  I got there on time and waited to chat with her.  She is always late but I expect that as she spends as much time with her patients as need be to make sure they are comfortable going forward.  I recall that attentive treatment when I started this whole exercise.  When we finally met for 45 minutes she was able to answer most of my questions and we had a good chat about research, commitment and passion when it comes to being dedicated to anything.  She made me think about a number of things differently as well answering of my direct questions about treatment, the four legs of the stool and alternate strategies.  It was funny when I mentioned the “four legs of the stool” she had a very quizzical look on her face and I then realized or remembered I was talking to a person who specializes in oncology surgery for rectal cancer.  Her interpretation of a stool is quite different than my example.  We had a good laugh when it struck me that she was seeing “four legs on a stool”.

Regardless our meeting was very positive and she made me feel clearer about some of the things I had been thinking and our time together was truly valuable.  We departed with a hug and each wishing the other best of efforts as we go ahead in our different paths.  She did encourage me to contact her anytime which is very Dr Auer and sincerely spoken.

I then hauled my butt down to the other clinic to see Dr Jonker about an hour later than my appointment.  Fortunately I was not too late to see Dr Jonker as he had some good information for me.  Primarily I was interested in my CT Scan results of the previous Friday.  He had read the scans and was happy to report that there had been some progress as my liver and lung invasions were slightly smaller.  That is with only one treatment between scans due to my delays of the past month.  He then scheduled me for 4 more sessions at three week intervals and encouraged me to take my meds that he had prescribed in my last visit to help with nausea and to take 5 daily shots in my stomach, instead of three, to boost my WBC count more rapidly.  I agreed and we set another appointment for early June for another CT Scan and visit to discuss the results.  In addition he read my blood results and gave me the OK to go ahead with my Chemo session on the following morning.

Those couple of hours were time well spent and I felt much happier about what had been going on.  Some encouragement from the Drs is very well received when one is spiralling on the outlook of this condition and its taxing treatment patterns and side effects.

On Tuesday I went to my session with a little loathing but the upbeat staff and friendly attitudes made the 3 hours go by pretty quickly.  After the session I picked up some lunch and spent some time with Tara-Lee and Kaia which is always uplifting.  We enjoyed our lunch and chatted about the previous days appointments.  I then headed to the country to rest for the balance of the day.  About half way there I started to feel that same pressure to get to a bathroom as I had experienced a month or so ago which made the back half of the drive another toe-curling event.  Fortunately I made it home without a mishap but man that is attention getting.  The balance of the afternoon was mindless couch potato time in front of Netflix and some interesting episodes of Scandal.  I am still a Scandal fan and I did go back to Season 1 Episode 1 to relive how this all started.  Freddi came home and made a soup and sandwich for our dinner and it was great.

Yesterday was a day of doing some computer work for the company and some resting and I did not leave the house.  I did manage to muster up the energy to cook a Chinese dinner for Freddi and me and it even turned out well.  (Interesting:  spell checker wants me to replace the pronoun “me” with “I” in that sentence but if I recall my grammar teacher’s words properly the test is removing the other person and state the sentence with the appropriate pronoun reference and use that when combining two people).  Needless to say it should have been an early evening but I still stayed up late and watched some late night TV.  I did sleep well when I finally got to bed and I woke up feeling refreshed by still shitty as the bottled Chemo was still trickling into my system.  Granted I was less nauseous than previous sessions but nauseous none-the –less.

This morning I had my bottle removed at CCAC and then joined Brehn, Tara-Lee and Kaia for lunch once again.  I am now at home trying to ensure that I drink enough water to flush the bad stuff out of my system as quickly as possible.  All in all not a bad week so far but it usually takes another two days to feel better or better enough to really enjoy food and get my systems working properly.  I look forward to that status.

Be well and happy and I send my love to those of you who have taken the time to drop by ......

Reality Sucks....

Yesterday I went to the hospital to do my blood tests for my next session of Chemo.  All went well at the hospital and I was out of there in fairly short order.  The deal is that the tests would be evaluated prior to my session and if my counts were off they would reach out to me.  That is the protocol that we live with.  The balance of my day was spent hoping that the phone does not ring as a call is usually bad news.  Since I have had the calls before I was very aware of this circumstance happening.

Well I made it through to a little after 3 pm with the thought that my Tuesday session would happen.  However, I did receive the call and in fact my WBC count was even lower than the previous week.  When pressed for an answer about what I could do to boost my WBC count the nurse told me to wash my hands more frequently.  Disappointed .... well I guess.  Not only was I disappointed with the news I was a little disappointed with the comment from the nurse. 

So I have accepted that I will try again next Monday with an early morning blood test and then I get to meet Dr Jonker at 11:00 am and Dr Auer at 1:00 pm.  I had asked for the appointment with Dr Auer as she is my Oncologist of record and I had felt it was time for an update.  My CT Scan is on Friday and there should be some results from that test by Monday.   The appointment with Dr Jonker is a routine scheduled appointment but I hope to get some answers from either or both of the Drs on Monday.

Delays like this give the “bad guys” opportunity to move at will as my line of defense is cut off.  In addition, it is hard to maintain a regular life when these significant appointments for Chemo are shifted.  I had already moved a bunch of appointments around to accommodate the last delay and now I must do the same thing for next week.

But I guess that is my reality right now.  My treatment is the priority and the balance of my life revolves around this reality.  However, at the risk of repeating myself, right now reality sucks.

Hoping you are well and happy and that I will be able to report better news in the upcoming week.  Thank you to those of you who have taken the time to drop me notes about these updates.  Your input helps me greatly.  Be well ......

Round 3 Session 6 - Delayed

The week has been a different week as I had planned on having my next treatment on Tuesday.  However, that did not happen due to my WBC count again.  Monday I went to the bloodletter early as I had a Dr appt with Dr Jonker at 9 am.  The bloodletting went off without a hitch and I had a good meeting with the Dr.

We talked about my short term effects during the last Chemo treatment and he was not surprised about what happened.  I had experienced bouts of nausea, diarrhea, constipation, listlessness, fatigue, inability to sleep, and just plain grumpiness.  However, these effects were more intense than previous sessions and I was concerned.  I articulated my struggles about diet, exercise and mindset and he agreed that they all should be considered as part of the treatment.  I then suggested we consider a three week cycle instead of a two week cycle as that would allow me to get stronger for longer between sessions.  He considered this and agreed that we could give that a try and we would watch for the effects on the “bad guys” working in my body.  It was also agreed at that point that I would go ahead with my Tuesday Chemo treatment.  Happy with the results of the meeting I left the hospital and set about my day.

Later in the afternoon I received a call from the hospital with the news that my WBC had not met the minimum mark and my Chemo session would be delayed by one week.  Needless to say I was disappointed and wondered why my Neupogen had not done its work.  I then recalled that due to my own carelessness I had forgotten to take the shot 24 hours after my Chemo had been stopped.  I had remembered about 48 hours after the bottle was removed.  I took the three shots but a day late.  That may well have caused the WBC count to not recover as quickly as we would expect. Damn ....

I am now scheduled for the afternoon of the 14^th and all of my plans have now been appropriately adjusted.  During this week of feeling pretty good I managed to get my technology back online by going to Staples for a tune-up of my computer and visiting the Apple Store to get my phone back online as I had received a message saying the Sim was “invalid”.  My computer had shut itself down a couple of weeks ago and then I received an intrusion by one of the “fix your computer” hackers from the Internet.  After a brief discussion with those guys I realized I was not dealing with Microsoft Agents that they claimed to be.  I dropped the line and then started to have trouble signing into my computer.   The following morning I tried again and I was able to get into the computer but knew I had to have the software and hardware scanned.  The folks at Staples did a diagnostic and then identified a plan to get rid of some 3000 intrusions from my computer.  This computer is only 3 years old and I use the internet for email, inquiries, Facebook, Skype and following some blogs and that is about it.  Regardless all of the crap was removed over a one day period at a reasonable cost and my computer is running fine now.  Oh the trials and tribulations of technology.   

In addition, this week I managed to get a couple of the ToDo list items started. It felt good to actually get my hands dirty and physically work out doing some constructive things.  Having the time to do these projects and actually getting to them are two entirely separate things.  Of late I have been thinking a lot about these projects but not actually getting to them.  I have been doing more cooking and cleaning and they seem to more naturally fall into place.  I am hoping the extra week I will have each cycle will have a beneficial effect on getting to these projects.  The one I have chosen this week (renovating a bathroom) is well underway.

Next week I am having my treatment on Tuesday and expect to have some of the usual effects for the balance of the week.  I will be diligent and drink lots of water and try some new meds that the Dr prescribed to reduce nausea and other related issues.  I also have a CT Scan scheduled for Friday which will give us more information about what is going on inside.  That is followed by appt with Dr Auer to discuss progress.  Following that I intend to enjoy two weeks of no treatment where I should be feeling better and stronger.  I expect to take some time to visit friends in Florida during that period and making the best of my time.

I hope all is well with you and that you are anticipating a transition to spring as we move our clocks forward this weekend. 

Be well and happy ......