The visiting nurse came down today and removed the PIC line. This signifies the end of the assault! Yippee! Unfortunately I can't celebrate with champagne but I can add that to my recovery food list. (Feel free to have a glass for me if you want to. :-)) Just to recap I have had 35 radiation treatments and 6 chemo treatments divided into two sections. All in there were a few delays in the chemo due to the side effects but nothing that significant. The assault on the cancer is over and now its time for recovery. Yippee!
I waited to report on this weeks chemo because it always seems that right after I report nothing major is going on something crops up. This week was probably the best of the first weeks for the final three chemo treatments. (For those that may not be aware the first 3 chemo treatments were getting a single large dose of Cisplatin in a day every three weeks running in parallel with the radiation treatment. The last three treatments were a lower dose of Cisplatin on one day followed up with a 5FU infusion that was administered by an IV pump at home over the course of 4 days. That is the treatment that just ended.) Fatigue increased throughout the week and the mouth sores started to appear at the end of the week. (I think I could set my watch by the way those things show up on time. :-))
I am anticipating that the same trend as the previous two at home treatments will continue with this one where things get a bit worse for the next 4-5 days or so and then I start to come back out of it. Already my voice, just today, has gone from being able to say a sentence or two to not talking at all. Fortunately having been through this twice already I have some idea what to expect and based on last time have the proper medication levels set to help offset the side effects.
The difference this time around is that once I do bottom out its all recovery from that point going forward. It has been odd I think for people to see the whiplash speed that things change. As I get farther away from a chemo treatment I start to improve, can talk a bit and the energy level starts to get better. Then once the chemo starts its like going back to the beginning. One day I could talk the next one I can't. As I said a sentence or two ago the nice thing this time around is that once I start on the recovery part there aren't any more treatments to set me back. I should be getting better day by day. As for how long that is going to take is any ones guess. It could be two months and I am eating again or it could be 6 or longer. There really isn't any way to tell. One thing I have noticed is that the week before chemo treatments, the third week after a treatment ended, the recovery seemed to pick up the pace a bit. Of course then another chemo treatment was administered and that put me back to the beginning. It will be interesting to see where I am at 4 weeks from now.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Monday, March 31, 2008
The Final Assault: Follow Up Chemo No. 3
I am blogging from on location at the hospital this morning as I await the start of the final chemo. This is it. The troops are all staged and ready for the final door to door sweep for any stray cancer cells. The PIC line is in and they just hooked up the IV pump. What happens is the PIC line gets installed then an XRAY is taken to make sure it ended up in the right place. Once the doctor evaluates the XRAY and gives the green light to start the IV pump is hooked up and the process is started.
One plus with this time is that I have been feeling a bit better over the weekend and taking in more fluids. This is good because they can't start giving me the actual chemo drugs until I "output" a certain volume. For the past few chemo sessions they had to give me extra drugs to "encourage" activity to get the output that was needed. Sometimes that meant I was just getting fluids through the IV pump until the afternoon. Today I have already hit the volume requirement so hopefully I will be done early. Yippee!
CT Scan Update
I realized that I didn't put a post about the follow up visit for the CT Scan. Overall the CT Scan came back good. This was a scan just of the neck area. There is still one small mass there the largest tumor was in the lymph nodes on the side of my neck. It has shrunk about 75% by volume from the last CT Scan. I met with the radiation oncologist first that morning and he said that it could be scar tissue, dead cancer cells or lingering cancer cells. I wasn't so keen on the last answer and asked what the options were. They will keep a watch on that area but it is steadily shrinking. Another CT Scan is schedule for about 2 months out and they will look at it then.
In the afternoon I met with the medical oncologist and asked him about the CT Scan results. He felt that there was nothing to worry about. With the size and amount of tumors that I had in my neck he did not feel the lymph nodes would go back completely to the same shapes that they were prior to the cancer. That this was most likely just residual tissue from the dead cancer cells and there may always be some small change there. In about 3-4 months they will schedule a PET scan.
The PET scan is the gold standard as far as tests go to detect cancer cells. Other than that everything else is looking good, except for the swallowing issue. :-(
The radiation oncologist used a scope to check out the nasal area and the throat. He confirmed that the main tumor in the nasopharynix is all gone. He also confirmed that the back of my throat is still coated with lots of the thick green mucus. This is what makes swallowing a problem. There really isn't much that can be done about this except wait. For the last few days I have noticed that I am coughing up less mucus that I was before but it is more than enough to cause me not to be able to eat yet. This last round of chemo of course will set that back even farther but only for a few weeks. After that its onto recovery time knowing that there are no more treatments. Yippee! While I am not looking forward to the next 7-10 days or so it is nice to know that so far the treatment plan has been a success and that this the last treatment. Once I get by the next two weeks I should be on a steady course of recovery without the spectre of being set back by additional treatments lingering in the air.
New Addition To The Recovery Food List
I have discovered YouTube and Expert Village as great sources of how to videos. You can find out more about cooking techniques from some of the videos there than on the Food Network. While poking around I did find a video from the food network that covered something called the garbage plate. For those of you not aware of all that upstate NY has to offer in culinary delights I am going to attempt to link to it here. This is a great food item and it ranks right up there with sausage gravy and biscuits. My favorite garbage plate is the cheese burger plate with an extra cheese burger. Here is the link.
Garbage Plate Video
If you get a chance and are in the Rochester area there are a few places that serve this marvolous delicacy. It is worth the drive. And if anyone has the recipe for the ground beef type of hot sauce they put on hot dogs and the garbage plate let me know. I think that is all I need to be able to make one at home. Now that is motivation to get eating again!
One plus with this time is that I have been feeling a bit better over the weekend and taking in more fluids. This is good because they can't start giving me the actual chemo drugs until I "output" a certain volume. For the past few chemo sessions they had to give me extra drugs to "encourage" activity to get the output that was needed. Sometimes that meant I was just getting fluids through the IV pump until the afternoon. Today I have already hit the volume requirement so hopefully I will be done early. Yippee!
CT Scan Update
I realized that I didn't put a post about the follow up visit for the CT Scan. Overall the CT Scan came back good. This was a scan just of the neck area. There is still one small mass there the largest tumor was in the lymph nodes on the side of my neck. It has shrunk about 75% by volume from the last CT Scan. I met with the radiation oncologist first that morning and he said that it could be scar tissue, dead cancer cells or lingering cancer cells. I wasn't so keen on the last answer and asked what the options were. They will keep a watch on that area but it is steadily shrinking. Another CT Scan is schedule for about 2 months out and they will look at it then.
In the afternoon I met with the medical oncologist and asked him about the CT Scan results. He felt that there was nothing to worry about. With the size and amount of tumors that I had in my neck he did not feel the lymph nodes would go back completely to the same shapes that they were prior to the cancer. That this was most likely just residual tissue from the dead cancer cells and there may always be some small change there. In about 3-4 months they will schedule a PET scan.
The PET scan is the gold standard as far as tests go to detect cancer cells. Other than that everything else is looking good, except for the swallowing issue. :-(
The radiation oncologist used a scope to check out the nasal area and the throat. He confirmed that the main tumor in the nasopharynix is all gone. He also confirmed that the back of my throat is still coated with lots of the thick green mucus. This is what makes swallowing a problem. There really isn't much that can be done about this except wait. For the last few days I have noticed that I am coughing up less mucus that I was before but it is more than enough to cause me not to be able to eat yet. This last round of chemo of course will set that back even farther but only for a few weeks. After that its onto recovery time knowing that there are no more treatments. Yippee! While I am not looking forward to the next 7-10 days or so it is nice to know that so far the treatment plan has been a success and that this the last treatment. Once I get by the next two weeks I should be on a steady course of recovery without the spectre of being set back by additional treatments lingering in the air.
New Addition To The Recovery Food List
I have discovered YouTube and Expert Village as great sources of how to videos. You can find out more about cooking techniques from some of the videos there than on the Food Network. While poking around I did find a video from the food network that covered something called the garbage plate. For those of you not aware of all that upstate NY has to offer in culinary delights I am going to attempt to link to it here. This is a great food item and it ranks right up there with sausage gravy and biscuits. My favorite garbage plate is the cheese burger plate with an extra cheese burger. Here is the link.
Garbage Plate Video
If you get a chance and are in the Rochester area there are a few places that serve this marvolous delicacy. It is worth the drive. And if anyone has the recipe for the ground beef type of hot sauce they put on hot dogs and the garbage plate let me know. I think that is all I need to be able to make one at home. Now that is motivation to get eating again!
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