Third Chemo Cycle

OK, so it turns out I am a terrible keeper of a blog! I do not update it often enough. Not promising anything but I will try to do it more often. Let me get you caught up on the last couple of weeks.

I had Chemo the week of January 6^th. The trial drug was also administered with this cycle. This was, by far, the worst cycle to date. I did not feel well for a good week and a half (nausea, at one point a drink of water almost made me sick!! Please laugh at that because it is funny). In addition to not feeling well from the chemo I also came down with a terrible stomach pain on the Monday evening and Wednesday morning the week after chemo. I have never felt any pain like this in my life! I ended up going to the emergency room both times. While there I was introduced to a great little drug called Dilaudid. Let me tell you, this takes the pain away immediately. It is so good I requested it on the second visit within the first 15 seconds of seeing the Doctor. I am not a healthcare provider but I am guessing that sent up some red flags!

They were unable to find anything wrong with me after running blood tests, a CAT scan, and an X-Ray. I saw my Oncologist the next day and he seems to think it was a reaction to a medication I was taking. It could be that it has something to do with the trial drug.

Speaking of the trial drug, it is possible that I am just getting a placebo rather than the drug. However, I have been having some odd symptoms since my last treatment that were not present with the previous two. I have developed a small rash in a couple of places (possible side effect), had flu like symptoms (possible side effect), and the stomach pain/ gastritis (possible side effect). We are not getting too excited but it seems that I am experiencing a few of the side effects of this drug. Hopefully I got it!

Today I went for my pre-chemo blood test to see if my white cell count is low. Miraculously, for the first time since I started chemo, I am fine. No Neupogen shot for me this week! We are very happy.

So I start the last round of chemo next week on Monday. I will get another scan in the couple of weeks after that to see what progress has been made.

Hope you are all well. Talk to you soon.

Great Scan Results

I will start with the best news we have had in awhile. I had a CAT scan this week and the results were great. The cancer tumors around my right lung have shrunk in response to the Chemotherapy. There are no signs that the cancer has spread anywhere else. All in all this is the best news we could hope to hear. So for now the course of treatment will continue as planned. Yipee!!!

We definitely had an interesting Christmas. It started with Sandi and the kids getting the stomach flu on Christmas Eve. I was sent into quarantine and not allowed to help or clean anything up. Sandi took care of the kids and herself. It was a big job with everyone vomiting for about 12 hours. She proceeded to clean all bathrooms multiple times to try and clear out the germs. To date it has paid off. I have not come down with the flu. On Christmas we went out for Chinese, not bad but a different sort of Christmas. It was great to be together and we are thankful for that.

I am scheduled to start the next round (3rd cycle) of Chemo on Monday. I had a blood test yesterday to check my White Blood Cell count. Again, it was very low so I got a shot yesterday and today to get the count up. I should be ready for Chemo on Monday assuming the SNOWPOCALYPSE does not shut down Indianapolis.

During this cycle of Chemo I will be given the clinical trial drug Yervoy (or placebo) in addition to the normal Chemo drugs Cisplatin and Etoposide. The clinical drug is also added in the 4th cycle. After the fourth cycle chemo ends, but the clinical trial drug continues every three weeks.

I also wanted to share a couple of our Christmas pictures. Thanks to Molly Connor ( www.mollyconnor.com ) for taking these on very short notice. We are very happy with how they turned out.

If you can not read the shirts, mine says Screw Cancer, Sandi's says Beat Cancer, and the kids say Fa La La La La. We thought they were appropriate.

All for now. Hope everyone had a nice Holiday Season.