Quiet Week

Not much to say and somehow I managed to miss posting for a week. Guess that’s because I was busy last week with non-cancer, non-treatment related stuff. I didn’t have an Erbitux treatment because I was traveling, so I had a little bit of energy while doing my business in San Francisco. I am still dealing with the daily pain from my stent, which I have now realized is no longer stent pain, but rather kidney pain, meaning the stent is not doing its job. I have a call in to my urologist to sort this out. The stent is due to come out next week, but before we plan that, I want to know what the next step is. If this larger stent isn’t keeping the kidney from blocking, then we need another solution. I’m hoping he isn’t going to tell me he’s got an even bigger stent he wants to try!

Anyway, one round of treatment after 3 weeks off wasn’t too difficult to handle. No real side effects to report and according to everyone who saw me last week (many of who had not seen me for over a year) “I looked good”. I guess dropping 45plus pounds agrees with me. Not to mention the lack of a rash on my face and my overall good attitude. The fact was that night I was feeling good. Granted I had taken a few Demerol and a glass of wine to deal with pain issues, but other than that I was feeling like myself, whoever that may be these days.

I had a round of treatment this week. Some issues with sleeping last night and appetite today, but nothing major to report. I am scheduled for my 15 month CT next Tuesday and I will get the results and my next Erbitux treatment on Thursday of that week (January 26). I have an appointment with Dr. Lange and will talk with him about a few things – a new drug we’ve discovered, how he thinks the Erbitux is working, what else we can do to defeat these side effects, etc. I’ll probably also squeeze one more treatment in the following week before having to take a break. I’m approaching the one year mark of being on this drug. Dr. Lange thinks its doing the trick. I’m still not convinced.

The nurses and I are hopeful that the once a month injections of Sandostatin are helping bring the diarrhea under control. I am thrilled to be down to 5-6 trips a day, they would like to see 1-2, but after almost a year of 12+ a day, 5-6 is really not that bad. It’s all in your perspective. I’ll continue on the monthly injections while on the next rounds of Erbitux and if we see an increase, we can change both my Sandostatin dosage and schedule (to every 3 weeks) which is fine with me. Anything is better than twice a day.

No trips on the horizon for me –either work wise or personal. Need to resolve my kidney issues before I feel comfortable going anywhere.

And that’s all that's on my mind for now.