Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Growing Again And New Plan

Long day hopped up on steroids and intravenous iodine. Blah.

New oncologist fellow seems pretty cool. :) She's even a bit more touchy-feely than the last one, whom I liked a lot, so that is good.

The scan results show that the cancer has grown again, a little, so I need to get back on chemo to stabilize it. The good news is there are no new lesions.

The new plan is to try a different chemo regimen which will hopefully be easier for me to take (and much less nausea). This new chemo plan would be only one drug (Xeloda), which is taken in pill form, and to take a much lower dose (1000 mg instead of the 2000 mg I was taking). I will do 4 rounds of that, then have another CT scan to see what's going on. If there is more growth then we will change the chemo regimen. If there is no growth, we will continue with that until it stops working.

I have an MRI scheduled for next Wednesday. Its been about 2 years since the last one I had and I've been having dizzy spells (which could be due to dehydration--drinking enough is definitely a problem which I've been working on). It is also a good idea to get a new baseline since we are starting a new approach to treatment.

I have high hopes for this new regimen. I look forward to not having to go to the chemo ward every 3 weeks, to not being knocked out and sick from that for the next 3-4 days. I look forward to having more energy and less nausea. I hope that this will be a regimen I can live with, not suffer under.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That sounds like a good treatment! I'm hoping it is much, much less harsh on your system.

Sarah Haas said...

You are always in my prayers as well as your family and especially that beautiful little boy. He's lucky to have a mother who has so dedicated her life to him. I hope this new treatment will be much better than the last. You are so strong and an inspiration to us all.
-Sarah