Tuesday, January 12, 2010

More Chemo After Christmas

I had been scheduled for chemo on Monday the 28th. I had called to see if I could move it, and there was no problem with that. So the day after we got back, I had to go in for another infusion. I already wasn't feeling great, and this didn't help. And Angie was in such a furious hurry to clean the house, that my Tuesday did not start all that well.

I went in to work a bit on Wednesday and Thursday, but I didn't get a great deal accomplished. I also began having more issues with nosebleeds after this last bit of chemo. It's partly the dry weather, and partly that the Avastin makes it more likely. But again coupled with my post-nasal drip, it makes for yet another less than comfortable way to wake up in the mornings.

My appetite seemed to come back. A tale I have been telling is that one day at work I had one of my old favorite tuna melt combos from Davanni's. Back before all the cancer, that was about enough to fill me up with just the "half" sandwich. But afterwards I felt I could have gotten the "full" version with 2 6-inch sandwiches. So I did just that the next day. And I still hit the vending machine for a candy bar that afternoon.

With this appetite, I was hoping to get back some of that weight I'd lost last fall. I had dropped from 145ish to just under 130 pounds. I'm not sure when: during the 4th embolization or so. But even though I had the appetite, I'd end up feeling very full -- almost uncomfortably so -- after eating big. So I could only do that about once a day. But I was happy to be eating.

Noel did us a great favor and inspected and found a fix for our dryer. This comes as great comfort to Angie who has been continuing her post-Christmas, post-Brooke cleaning. The tree and decorations came down pretty quickly. But she couldn't help but do many loads of laundry, dryer or not.

I had the 3rd and last infusion of chemo for this latest round on January 4th. They generally take a blood sample beforehand, and this time my numbers came in too low. This meant that I couldn't get the Taxol, but that they would give me the Avastin. I was wondering if the low numbers were an explanation for why I've had little energy these day. I'm still not entirely sure.

I was scheduled for a PET/CT following the round of chemo, and I had that scan done on the 7th. I meet with Dr. Amatruday tomorrow to discuss the results. But his nurse Michelle called today to give me a bit of advance notce of them, so I could think about them beforehand to ask questions. I don't mean to keep anyone in suspense, but I'll wait until after my appointment tomorrow to mention my current status. I will update this post, so check here again to find out.

Update: I changed my mind -- the update is a post of its own.

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