Meeting with the Doctor... maybe?

Today we had our regularly scheduled meeting with the medical oncologist. When we got there and signed in they came over and told us the appointment was not for Thursday but was for Friday and that the Doctor wasn't there. Fortunately I had the calendar that they had given me with the the doctors appointment specifically written in on the 27th. At first they suggested we come back on Friday but Sue explained it took a bit of coordination with the kids to be available on Thursday. They checked and decided the doctor would be back in about and hour and we could wait if we wanted to. Seeing as we already were there and had coverage for the kids arranged we decided to stay.

When we met with the doctor we discussed the current state of the symptoms. We explained that the urination was still a big problem. (Part of the reason I am writing this at 5 in the morning is because I haven't been able to sleep much all night and not because the Discovery Channel had a "How Its Made Marathon" going. :-) Though if they did that would be a good reason to stay awake.) I was surprised that after the special blood samples they had taken on Monday the only results he had was the blood counts. He seemed to think that this was a side effect of the chemo drug and would go away in time. They did order another set of blood tests to check the kidney function and also to do a urine culture.

As I mentioned the other day the urinary problem is now my biggest concern. During the day I literally can not go longer than 30 minutes without the urgent need to urinate. Tonight for example I haven't been able to sleep in a single stretch longer than 20 minutes. The reason this is a big concern is that my energy level is starting to return and the inability to sleep or just not have to get up every 15 - 30 minutes starts to drag that back down. It also makes it difficult to focus on any activity for more than a few minutes at a time. Hopefully based on the tests they may have some other suggestions of how to deal with this.

After we discussed how I am now we discussed the general prognosis. So far the medical oncologist feels the treatments are working well. Right now they are going to give me a break to recover from the radiation a bit before the next round of chemo treatments start. There are 3 more treatments left but they are at a reduced dose of the main chemo drug along with an infusion of another drug. According the medical oncologist these will pack less of an impact than the first set of treatments. The other plus is that I won't also be going through radiation at the same time. Pretty much as we were told back at the beginning this last week would be the worst part of the treatment plan and that is now behind us.

At the end of next week I am scheduled for a MRI to take a look at where the main tumor was in the sinus area. Then the week after that we meet with the medical oncologist. My guess is that depending upon how I am doing at that point they will schedule the last three treatments. When all of the treatments are completed another PET Scan will be performed that hopefully will come out negative. (Once again proving I have a radioactive personality. :-))