It was national dog day on Sunday and I failed to talk about Speedy on my last blog post! Joanna had a work conference on Wednesday so I asked my parents if we could have him back at the house while she was out of town for the next 3 days. They allowed it as long as kept my distance. It was really nice having him around. Even though he’s not a cuddly dog and keeps to himself most of the time, the house felt a little less lonely and I have an excuse to get out of the house for a few minutes to take him on walks. One of the days I let him walk me so he decided where we would go.
I am on my 4th and final round of chemo now. I’ve got this full week and then 2 more weeks of booster shots. The visit with Dr. Wiisanen went well. He showed me my latest xrays which showed additional tumor shrinkage from previous rounds.
He said not to feel discouraged that there isn’t as much visible shrinkage from last round to this one but he estimates that the tumor has gotten smaller by at least 1mm. His assumption is that Derek is mostly comprised of dead tissue now but it’s hard to say until they do surgery and dissect it to see what he’s made of. He checked my AFP tumor markers as well. I started at 37,000 and now I’m down to 177, which is very good news. Cancer free is when the markers are below 8.
AFP is one of several tumor markers. Tumor markers are molecules in the blood that are higher when a person has certain cancers. AFP is found mainly in liver cancer and nonseminomatous germ cell tumors, which are rare
Bad news, even though they said they wanted to do only 2 rounds of Neulasta they want to do a final round at the end of this week, which means 2 more days of bone pain. Ugh…
I’ll be done done with chemo therapy mid-September. My original understanding was that they wanted me to do 4-6 week of a break before they do another follow up and then a surgical consult. Dr. Wiisanen wanted to move that up and is scheduling the exam at the end of September. This means that If I meet with the surgeon early, they’ll want to do the surgery in the first weeks of October. Things could be moving faster than I had expected.
Later in the afternoon I sent him an email asking if he would be comfortable with me living on my own between finishing up chemo and before doing surgery because I didn’t feel comfortable asking with my parents in the room.
He replied saying “I totally understand. I think while someone is undergoing chemotherapy, it is important to keep others around so that they can help if anything arises. I think after September 11th, I would feel comfortable if you were to go back to your own place. Certainly, you need to let us know if any new symptoms should arise but I think it would be reasonable to return home on your own after chemotherapy finishes.”
I just need to get some semblance of independence back, sleeping in my own bed again, cooking, and driving myself. ESPECIALLY before doing surgery that’s going to keep me confined to a bed at my parents place for several weeks.
They ran out of chairs on Monday for my first chemo session of the week and had to stick me in a bed which was a first. Dad snapped a picture of me mid yawn.
Joanna was able to drive down to visit with me. It was nice having her around because it made the 4 hours fly by.
This week is more or less going to be the same cycle of nausea, fatigue, and bone pain. I started feeling a little queasy last night and this morning as well.
Hang in there. You have a positive attitude which is half the battle. I have been reading about your blog and experience and it has been interesting. My prayers are with you.
Thanks Joy!