Previous Status Reports Here's the Latest... Hi everyone - Time for my post-holiday health update! I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday season. The good news is, I enjoyed mine quite a bit.
As most of you know from my last update, I had my final chemo treatment, treatment #12, on December 10th. The chemo gods were smiling on us and my port didn't clog and we had no other delaying type complications. Though my regular nurse Trish was not on duty, we ended up having a wonderful nurse from the pediatric oncology unit,
who had come over to fill in for the regular nursing staff, since they were short handed that day. Turns out she lives in Northampton, and
is a neighbor of my regular (general practitioner) doctor and knows her well. She was also a lot of fun and very upbeat. So we had old home day in chemo and that helped make things much easier. I got hugs all around upon leaving and went home to recuperate.Overall, for some unknown reason, the after effects of my final chemo were somewhat easier than I had expected. Maybe it was partially
psychological, knowing it was my last chemo, maybe the omission of bleomycin from my last three treatments made things easier, who knows? I'm not saying it was a breeze, but I felt perkier then I expected to, and seemed to get my energy level back quicker than usual.We decided during my treatment, in consultation with the chemo nurse, that it would make sense for us to continue my neupogen shots for another ten days after my last chemo, in order to keep my blood counts up through the holidays. So we had to deal with that inconvenience after my last treatment, but it was not that big a deal. However, getting a shot for the last time was a good thing. Getting stuck every night is certainly not something I looked forward to, even though it wasn't the worst thing in the world.
I saw my doc a few days after my last treatment, and he gave me the once over. Everything was looking good, and though I had been expecting to have scans done the week after my last treatment, he informed me that I would be getting a few weeks off to relax. Apparently, they like to give the last chemo some time to do its work,
plus give the Neupogen a chance to get out of my system, before doing the scans. So he scheduled my tests and scans for this week, the week
of January 4th, and I got a nice rest period from all the medical hassle. I didn't realize until I got this reprieve how much I needed it! It was a real relief to have no needles, no nasty drugs, no
tests, no doctor's visits, etc. for three whole weeks! Wow! Such a novelty....So for three weeks I had a nice rest, went to see my family for the holidays and had a very nice time, and generally just put medical stuff out of my mind for awhile. Starting this week, I've been back at Bay State getting my tests done, however. Yesterday I had a chest xray and a gallium shot and on Thursday I have my CT scan and my gallium scan scheduled. I have to take pre-meds tomorrow before the CT scan since I have had numerous allergic reactions to the iodine
contrast dye they use in the scan. So I have to pop some benadryl and prednisone beforehand. I also get to drink nasty contrast solution the morning of the scan. Then I get to lie in various contraptions without moving while I get scanned. Not much fun, but painless! We like painless, painless is good. If all goes well, my doc should have the results my early next week, so I can share them with everyone then.I'm feeling good and strong overall, doing my dog walks and getting my stamina back. There was a weird flu going around here recently that caused dizzy spells that Shaz caught fairly badly and I had a touch of recently, but I seem to have shaken it with only minor effects. I think my flu shot finally helped me, so I was glad about that. I am confident that my scans will show good results, but it will be nice to know that for sure.
In addition to getting my results, I have scheduled another visit to Dana Farber on January 21st, to consult with them about my radiation treatment. I will also be meeting with my Bay State radiation
oncologist, probably next week sometime, to discuss his recommendations for my radiation treatment. Then I'll have to make some decisions about where I'll be going for the treatment
(Springfield or Boston), and will know how long it will last. It will most likely begin in late January and continue for four to six weeks, with treatments five days per week. I'm anxious to get started with it and get it over with, but as always, it pays to take the time to get it right, so I'm cultivating some more patience.The only other issue I've had to think about is my surgically implanted port. Once chemo was over, I was anxious to get it taken out. It's not a huge inconvenience to have it in, since it's under the skin and fairly unobtrusive. However, it is a bit uncomfortable and more than that, it's a constant reminder of chemo. My doctor surprised me by telling me that they normally leave ports in for a
year after the end of treatment! A year!! Yuk!! So I expressed my displeasure with that, and he said that the reason they normally do this is because the greatest chance of relapse is within the first year, so if I relapse, they wouldn't have to put in another port for me to get more chemo. Oh goody. The risk of relapse, especially in cases with a "bulky" chest mass, is not insignificant, so he does have a point. However, I'm not planning on relapsing, and even if I did, getting a new port put in would be the least of my worries. It is a
minor outpatient surgical procedure that only takes a few days to recover from. The thought of having this thing in my chest for a whole year is not making me happy. So my doc said if I really felt strongly about it, he would take it out. I figure I'll wait 'till my scan results are in and my radiation is complete, but at this point I feel pretty strongly that I am going to have them take it out.Well, that's about it on this end. I've finally updated my journal entries for those that are interested, and I can actually go out in public these days, so you should be seeing more of me than you have been. I hope everyone is having a wonderful New Year!! Here's to a better 1999 than 1998!!
Carpe Diem
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Tuesday
7:00 PM
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