I'm Back....
I've been decompressing from my trip to Peoria. My dad is home from the hospital and has another test to go before the docs will be pinned down to a course of action. PET scan was scheduled for this afternoon, and then two doctor appts for him on Monday. Those will hopefully be involve some definitive news about a plan for him.
I decided I needed some rejuvenation on my way home this morning, especially since it was such a beautiful fall day. I drove by way of Starved Rock, hiked into one of the back canyons, climbed up into a big cave and sat on big rocks, surrounded by bigger rocks, looking out at the beautiful leaves in the sunshine and meditated for awhile. I needed some grounding, and that was the best way I could think of to get it. Can't get much more grounded than being surrounded by living rock in the midst of a forest! (It's sandstone canyons there, so part of the "rock" came home with me in the car. I'm still finding sand pouring out of unexpected places...)
The rest of the drive was uneventful but accompanied by loud sing-along to the tape I happened to have in the car. An all around nice return journey.
Monday, October 28, 2002
Treatment Day Finally!!!
With the daily shots of Neupogen since Thursday, my WBC and Neutriphils were up enough today to get my long delayed treatment. However, it looks like I traded a few platelets for the neutriphils. That's okay. With my platelets being up to 130 last week, I had enough to spare. Today's counts were:
WBC 8.4 Neutriphils 3.7
HgB 13.7
Platelets 71
First thing I did when I got my WBC results was to eat an apple. I miss those fresh fruits and veggies when my counts are low. After that the treatment went fine. The only glitches were with the chemo pump, but after the third annoying beeping episode, I just whomped it a good one and it settled down and behaved itself. You have to show these machines who's boss... At the end of the treatment, I stopped for a nice veggie burger, fries, salad (yippee!) AND a piece of cherry pie on my way home. I feel it was well deserved and it definitely was relished (ketchupped too!)
Oh, stop groaning...
My plan now is to get my Neulasta shot on Wed morning, and then drive from there down to Peoria. I think my dad my be out of the hospital by then, so we can visit at home. I'll probably be in Peoria til Friday. I will still be available by email or cell phone when I'm down there, so feel free to contact me.
I've talked to Dad and Mom by phone a couple of times. There's no news yet on what his next treatment is going to be. It seems to be difficult to get all the docs together to talk about it at once. I threw in a suggestion from my onc doc too. One of his partners is running a study for using Gleevac with sarcoma like my dad has. Don't know if dad would meet all the criteria for the study, or want to do it, but it's one more option to toss on the table for discussion, should the docs ever all show up.
Oh yeah, I had my own check up with the good Dr L this morning. Many of my nodes have shrunk. It's the extra-nodal tumors (not in the nodes, but in fatty, subcutaneous areas) that are being stubborn. I showed him the new one I found on my shoulder (about 5 cm). I have a couple others on my lower back that we've been watching for awhile, but the biggest one is deeper in, but we were finally able to measure it (after I assumed a contorted position, which if it's not a yoga posture, it should be). It was 8 cm. Those I am not happy about. They may take longer to get rid of. We'll keep measuring them after these (maybe, hopefully) last two chemo sessions and see what happens with them. Send them some shrinking vibes when you think of it. Think melting, shriveling, disappearing... Ahhh, how seasonally apropos! The wicked witch on the Wizard of Oz! I'm melting.............
With the daily shots of Neupogen since Thursday, my WBC and Neutriphils were up enough today to get my long delayed treatment. However, it looks like I traded a few platelets for the neutriphils. That's okay. With my platelets being up to 130 last week, I had enough to spare. Today's counts were:
WBC 8.4 Neutriphils 3.7
HgB 13.7
Platelets 71
First thing I did when I got my WBC results was to eat an apple. I miss those fresh fruits and veggies when my counts are low. After that the treatment went fine. The only glitches were with the chemo pump, but after the third annoying beeping episode, I just whomped it a good one and it settled down and behaved itself. You have to show these machines who's boss... At the end of the treatment, I stopped for a nice veggie burger, fries, salad (yippee!) AND a piece of cherry pie on my way home. I feel it was well deserved and it definitely was relished (ketchupped too!)
Oh, stop groaning...
My plan now is to get my Neulasta shot on Wed morning, and then drive from there down to Peoria. I think my dad my be out of the hospital by then, so we can visit at home. I'll probably be in Peoria til Friday. I will still be available by email or cell phone when I'm down there, so feel free to contact me.
I've talked to Dad and Mom by phone a couple of times. There's no news yet on what his next treatment is going to be. It seems to be difficult to get all the docs together to talk about it at once. I threw in a suggestion from my onc doc too. One of his partners is running a study for using Gleevac with sarcoma like my dad has. Don't know if dad would meet all the criteria for the study, or want to do it, but it's one more option to toss on the table for discussion, should the docs ever all show up.
Oh yeah, I had my own check up with the good Dr L this morning. Many of my nodes have shrunk. It's the extra-nodal tumors (not in the nodes, but in fatty, subcutaneous areas) that are being stubborn. I showed him the new one I found on my shoulder (about 5 cm). I have a couple others on my lower back that we've been watching for awhile, but the biggest one is deeper in, but we were finally able to measure it (after I assumed a contorted position, which if it's not a yoga posture, it should be). It was 8 cm. Those I am not happy about. They may take longer to get rid of. We'll keep measuring them after these (maybe, hopefully) last two chemo sessions and see what happens with them. Send them some shrinking vibes when you think of it. Think melting, shriveling, disappearing... Ahhh, how seasonally apropos! The wicked witch on the Wizard of Oz! I'm melting.............
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