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 ......
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