Wheres Waldo Been?

It's been awhile since I last updated the blog. Until recently there hasn't been much to report. I am still slowly recovering from the radiation treatments. At this point I can put a few words together but if I try to talk for any length of time it creates problems that can lead to a gag reflex and everything that goes along with it. :-) My throat is still sore and I am not able to eat or drink anything. Everything is taken through the PEG tube.

Yesterday I met with the radiation oncologist. The plan was to use a scope to check out my throat. The scope enters via the nose and works its way back to my throat. Unfortunately due to my condition he couldn't get the scope all the way back there. He did think that I may have a yeast infection in my throat that is causing some of the problems and prescribed two different drugs to help with that. I have been on both of these before. One is a general antibiotic and the other is the same one used to treat thrush infections. That last one has some side effects including drowsiness. I have to admit that when I started taking them I did end up sleeping some during the day afterward. Hopefully these will clear up some of the problems in the throat. It has been just about a month since the radiation treatments were completed and I was hoping for a bit more progress at this point.

On other news they have scheduled the start of the next three rounds of chemo. They put some distance between the end of radiation and the start of chemo to give me some time to recover. The next round starts a week from Friday. This round is a bit different than the first three treatments. The first difference is that the main drug used, Cisplatin, is used at a lower dose. This dose is 80% of the dose used during the main treatment. The medical oncologist said that while it may not seem like much of a reduction it will lessen the side effects. The next change is that a second drug will be used as well. This drug is 5FU. It is delivered via an infusion over 4 days. To accomplish this a special IV will be installed called a PIK line. (I am not sure I spelled that right.) This is a semi permanent IV line that will have a small pump hooked up to it. This pump slowly delivers the drug over 4 days. This is also designed to lessen the impact of the side effects. They will give me a fanny back to wear that will contain the equipment. I will have to wear this non stop during the four days. This is when I really start to join the collective. Not only will I have the PEG tube but I will have the PIK line coming out of me as well. :-) I have to admit I am not particularly looking forward to this phase of the treatment. The side effects will be less and wearing it over the weekend will not be too bad but I don't relish the idea of a semi permanent IV line being hookup up to me for a few days. When the 4 days are up they will take the PIK line out.

After that there will be two more treatments that are the same. Then I am done. The only thing left will be the ongoing testing that will take place for quite some time. I already have another CT scan scheduled for March and a PET scan will be scheduled for some point after the treatments are complete.

Next week before the chemo treatment I meet with the radiation oncologist on Tuesday. I probably won't post another update until after that meeting.