Light at the end of the tunnel

It’s been a slow week. No mountains or kayak trips. Our weekend was uneventful – last week was busy for me, much socializing after work long work days and I wasn’t able to do my usual work from home day, so I was tired by the time Saturday rolled around. Saw some friends on Saturday and attended a very nice baby naming ceremony for Gillian. Then came home watched a few movies and fell asleep. Sunday morning Pat flew out to Toledo and I camped out on the couch – for the rest of the day. Much needed relaxation, especially since I was on a plane to NYC at 6AM on Monday. Spent the day at a Mobile & Digital Licensing Summit at the Javits Center and back on plane by 6PM. Long, but semi-productive day. I returned to Logan at 10PM to pick up Pat.

Bed was on my agenda, but first I had to do my CT scan prep of a lovely barium type drink. I mix it with cranberry juice, which makes is semi-palatable. However I play a mental game with myself every time I need to drink this stuff and I’m finding it harder and harder to get it down.

Probably because I know that as I drink it, I am going to be making more and more trips to the bathroom and because of the hard time I had 8 weeks ago at my last scan. Got through the night, and awoke with enough time to drink the 2nd half of the prep before heading off to the hospital. Pat dropped me off; I went up to HemOc (Hematology / Oncology) got my port accessed, and headed back downstairs to be scanned. All went smoothly – the techs recognized me and we had a nice catch up conversation. A brief stop at the café for a bagel, since it had been over 15 hours since my last solid food, and some water to keep me from getting dehydrated (the problem that kicked my butt last time), and back to HemOc for my Erbitux.

The rash is slightly worse this week – it’s on both eyelids making it painful to wear contacts, my chest is getting bad and now my back is completely covered. I stopped the oral antibiotics because I don’t feel like dealing with a yeast infection, but I am being more diligent with the antibiotic gel. It seems to be having some effect. This weeks Erbitux went smoothly. Once again I slept through most of it. I woke up to see Pat sitting across from me and about 20 minutes remaining. I was back home by 2PM and asleep in my bed by 2:30. Slept most of the afternoon, but more importantly was able to sleep through the night.

I’ll get the results from the CT scan next Tuesday when I have my 8 week follow up appointment with Dr. Lange. I told the techs not to send the report upstairs unless it was clean.

Finally, I’ve been on Sandostatin for almost 2 weeks now. This week is the first time I am noticing any sort of effect. I think things are slowing down, but because of the CT scan prep and the usual inability to eat or drink on Wednesday, I can’t tell for sure. It certainly hasn’t constipated me like the nurses thought it would, so I am continuing on this dosage for the next week. Fortunately I am on the lowest possible dosage, so there is much room to increase. It’s a bit of a pain getting the meds because they have to be sent mail order, Cigna has to approve each prescription, and they have to be kept refrigerated, so it takes much planning to get the vials. Most likely we will increase my dose next week. The shots aren’t too bad, but we are having some problems not bruising me each time. When I inject myself I don’t get a black and blue, but Pat is feeling really bad about the bruises he keeps leaving me with. It looks like we’ll have a few more weeks to work this out.

I am looking forward to week 8 which as of right now is scheduled to be followed by a two week break from treatment. The next 8 weeks are already scheduled, but all of this needs to be confirmed with Dr. Lange next week. We don't expect any surprises, though I may try to finagle a 3rd week off.

And that’s all she wrote…

Posted by jean at June 22, 2005 09:15 PM