Well, I was all ready for Chemotherapy to start tomorrow (Wed, Oct. 6), but there was some sort of miscommunication at the office, and I'm supposed to start on FRIDAY (Oct. 8).
So, although I was ready to get this all over and done with (at least this time), I have a couple of days breathing room.
Found out that all of my scans : Cat-Scan, Brain Scan and Bone Scan were normal - meaning that there are no tumors to be found !!!!!! However, there could be some microscopic Cancer cells floating around in the blood - but Chemotherapy should take care of that pretty easily if that's the case.
My "Liver Function Tests" from my blood work a few weeks ago were highly elevated. The Doctor doesn't think that the abnormality is from Cancer, considering the Cat Scan didn't show anything. . . but he thinks it might be something else. There were several things that crossed his mind, and we're awaiting blood tests to see what it might be.
He also gave me another bit of shocking news. I think I had told you all before that the reason they are wanting to treat this Cancer so aggressively is that it has a 40 % chance of coming back in the years to come (since I have so many years ahead of me at only age 31).
Well, the truth of the matter is - as things stand now, without this aggressive treatment, I have a 75-80 % chance of the cancer coming back . . . judging from the size of the tumor and the type of Cancer. After the aggressive treatment, that number drops to about 40%.
I am taking a combination of Chemo drugs commonly refered to ACT. I will be given the "A" drug on Friday, along with an anti-nausea drug (which sometimes works, sometimes doesn't). Then, I will be hooked up to a portable "IV" that will be hooked into the port they "installed" last week. . . which will follow me home and hook onto my belt. This contains the "C" drug - and it is so toxic, they have to drip it into your system slowly over several days. It stays around for 2 days, and I will return to the office on Monday to have it taken away. On Sunday, I will start taking a Steroid pill and continue through Tuesday. This is to help lessen the chances that I will have an allergic reaction to the "T" drug that I will receive on Monday. On Monday, I go in and they administer the "T" drug. Then I'm done for one round. I will go and see the Doctor on the following Friday for blood work. That's the plan on an every 3 week schedule.
I was told that I could travel for the Holidays if I was up to it - if I was going to be gone on a Chemo Friday, I could reschedule that for later the following week. The trade off on that is that the initial group of Chemo will take longer than 4 months.
I'm still on schedule to take a 3 week break following my first "group" of chemo, in order to prepare for 6 weeks of radiation. (The 1st "group" of chemo will take me into Feb.) Then I will have about a week of a break, and then the 2nd "group" of chemo will begin (which will take me into Summer 2005). Although the 2nd "group" will have different medication, the side effects will remain the same.
As it stands now, I should begin to lose my hair in about 11/2 to 2 weeks.
Christy
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