Round 2!

I met with Dr. Y, my oncologist, on Monday and set up the treatment schedule for this round of chemotherapy. It will begin next Monday, Feb. 7 with IV's and another "fanny pack" hook-up, which will be disconnected on Wednesday. This will repeat itself every 2 weeks for a total of 12 cycles. Therefore this will cover 23 calendar weeks, ending the week of July 11, if all goes according to plan. The plan presumes there will be a drop in my tumor marker, read from future CEA blood tests, down to an acceptable level. The reading should be somewhere around 1. The last test before my PET Scan and biopsy it was 35. Even most recently after the biopsy it was still at 9. So hopefully the chemo will bring that number down, meaning any cancer cells, however small, within me have been killed and hopefully that this awful disease won't return, and certainly not with 18 months again. If my tumor marker isn't down by the end of 12 cycles, more chemo could be required. Let's hope that doesn't happen!

Here is my "chemo cocktail":

1. 5-FU (Fluorouracil); this is one that I had in Round 1 for all three treatments. This is the one that gets pumped into me via the fanny pack over a period of 48 hours. Common side effects include: decrease in white blood cells (i.e., lower resistance to infection), diarrhea, and skin sensitivity to sun.
2. Leucovorin; this is also one that I had before, fed by an IV on hook-up day. There are no known common side effects (thank goodness).
3. Irinotecan; this is a new one this time. Common side effects include decrease in white blood cells, diarrhea, nausea, loss of hair (that would be new, as it didn't happen in Round 1), and weakness.
4. Avastin (Bevacizumab);this is new also. Common side effects include decrease in white blood cells, diarrhea (are you sensing a pattern here?), and loss of appetite.

So it sounds like I'll be using a lot of Imodium the next 5 months to fight diarrhea. More frequent bag changes, no doubt. Also, I'll have to hope I don't get sick or get any infections, as my immune system won't be able to fight them as well. They told me the hair loss thing doesn't always happen with the Irinotecan but it certainly could so I shouldn't be surprised if it does. People were surprised in Round 1 when I didn't lose any hair. My philosophy now? If I do, I do. If I lose everything I might just go "Yul Brenner" with it; if it's partial, I may wear a baseball cap or something, I don't know. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

The last three drugs will each be administered by IV on hook-up day at the oncologist's so this process will take awhile each time. I was told to allow up to 6 hours for the first one. Then it's 48 hours with my fanny pack and pump for the 5-FU. Subsequent hook-up days shouldn't take as long, I'm told. Cyndy will be at my side for each Monday hook-up and IV. What would I do without her? Thank you, my darling wife, for everything you do on my behalf. You are a wonderful patient advocate. You're OK as a wife, too.

So that's the schedule and the treatment. Dr. Y did give me another option - do nothing. He didn't recommend it, but listed it as an option. I said no, I'm not doing nothing (sorry about the double negatives). I've geared up for having chemo for a month, that's my best option for killing any last remnants of cancer within me and hopefully reducing, if not eliminating, any additional chance of recurrence, so let's get it on. I don't look forward to it and I already want it to be over, but I'm not afraid to face it if that's what it takes to make me better.

I thank all of you who read any or all of my blogs, who keep me in their thoughts, or who pray for my recovery. God Bless You all. I am only one of many in the position I am in so please keep the millions of others in this country in mind who also battle this disease. Believe me I realize how amazingly fortunate and blessed by God I am that, given what I have had to battle, I am doing as well as I am. I know many others are not as fortunate. So please keep others, as well as myself, in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you again.