Day 49 - Round 3

Day 49 and it's Round 3! Again I am being pumped full of Zantac (IV), fosaprepitant aka EMEND (it's long lasting anti-nausea medication), zofran and dexamethosone. Then it's time for the adriamycin and cytoxan. Yea! Such a good day... not really.

Got here at 11.30 in time to take my blood. This was the first time that they had to poke me in my port. I asked them what it will feel like since the last time they put a needle in me I was sleeping. She said she'd count to three and then poke. It was just like getting poked for a blood draw. No big deal. It did sting a little bit afterwards. But that's just because... it hurt. Then it was a blood draw.

After that we went downstairs to the cafe to meet Jim, one of the guys Brad knows from KATU. Since he was running late, we ordered and he came after to hang out and chat. It is nice to see a nice friendly face here. Then it was back upstairs to the 7th floor and meet with Dr. Luoh. We waited for 45 minutes before they called us back. But it took me going back to the desk to find out what was going on. Later when we finally got back into a room we found out that Dr. L was waiting for us. He said that we weren't out there. I said, nope, we were waiting for 45 minutes. In any case he said that next time he's going to look for us. Good deal. I was getting worried because I need to schedule my neulasta shot the next day... 24 hours. Anyway, we met with Dr. L. And again we are going to tweak our medication regimine. Hooray... so I am going to start zofran tomorrow, followed by Saturday zofran and compazine and then on sunday i will do zofran, compazine (oral or suppository) and atavan. Then I can back down on Monday and on. He wants to start this before it gets bad. I told him that the zofran worked, as I wasn't nauseous, but I still had the vomiting. So we're again tweaking everything. He said it was fine for me to take zantac for the acid reflux as patients do get reflux. Then he asked if I had any questions. I asked how big is a lymph node supposed to be. He said you're not supposed to feel it at all. Hmmm... that's interesting. I told him that I was trying to feel it in the shower the other day. So he said to hop on the table and he can feel around. He said that he couldn't feel the node in the neck. He felt something, but he's not sure what it is... so if it is a node, then it's very small. Then he wanted to feel the node in the armpit. He said he couldn't feel anything there either!!! Then he started to palpatate my breast. He said again it was a lot more pliable. He said that the breasts are now looking symmetrical! Yee haw! I also told him that on the left side, the skin near the areola is looking less taught and not as stretched. He agreed. He said that the mass looks to be about 6-7cm... and that's down from the 9-10 at the beginning. This is all good news. He's very happy with the treatment. I am too. This is all great news. I attribute it to my great attitude and all the prayers being said on my behalf. So thank you all for being such a wonderful group of people praying for my health and the cancer to be gone. So next treatment since I am 3 treatments done, we are going to do another u/s to see if the tumor and the lymph nodes have returned to normal. Hip hip hooray.

Then it was time for treatment... where I am now. The woman, Jennifer, who took my blood pressure and asked how I was and I said doing great. I told her the news and she said that was fantastic. She was nearly jumping for joy. She said time for a beer! Then the nurse found out and she was happy too. Next it was Jon who was excited for me too. So it's good news all around.

Brad is currently getting me an appointment for my neulasta shot tomorrow and he's getting my u/s appointment in two weeks. I am on cloud 9 right now. Cancer GO AWAY!

*****

Okay so now I am home. I am getting tired, so I will keep this short. But I ask you that you take some of the prayers for me and shift them to my brother-in-law. He just found out that his colon cancer is stage 4 and has metastasized to his liver. The tumor is large and inoperable. Please direct some of your prayers to him and his family. It looks like it will be chemo for several months for him. So again, please say a prayer for him.

As for me, doing good.