Another Brick Falls...

The last few weeks have been a bit crazy. I unfortunately wasn’t able to do another dose of chemo before my scan, but that was probably for the best. The scan happened like normal on Friday, but I wasn’t scheduled to talk to the doc about it until Tuesday. It doesn’t seem like such a long time, until you are the one waiting for news. Friday afternoon I received a call from the doctor’s office letting me know that the doc had reviewed the results and decided to cancel the chemo session that was scheduled for Monday. The nurse couldn’t really give me much info as to why, just that the scan had good and not so good results. So the waiting started…
 
Finally, Tuesday arrived. Let’s start with the good news… The tumor on my lung, as well as the spots on my liver had shrunk. Yippee! At least the torture from the chemo did some good. Now for the bad news… The cancer has spread further into my spine and hips, as well as a new spot has formed on my adrenal gland. Then the whammy came. The scan showed a shadow on my brain that showed signs of being cancer, but a brain MRI would be needed to make sure. Wow, was not expecting that.
 
A new game plan had to be made. To start I would do a massive round of radiation on my lower back and hips to kill off the cancer and help manage the pain. The session took about 20 minutes to complete. The negative of it all is that my pain would increase before it would decrease. To make matters worse I had to argue with the pharmacy to get the new pain meds ready that night. They were concerned about the amount of controlled pain medication that I have received over the last few weeks. Finally, after talking to the doctor, they realized that they all worked in different ways. For about 3 days I was religiously taking the meds on time, then was able to slowly decrease the amount I was taking. Now I only really need them on days that I overdo it.
 
Next step was a brain MRI with contrast to see if there was cancer present. The day of the appointment was a bit of a comedy of errors. The appointment was early in the morning, and I completely forgot to set the alarm. My mom was taking me to the appointment and thank goodness she arrived early. I had 10 minutes to get up, get dressed and out the door. Good thing I didn’t need to dress to impress. I was pretty weak that morning, as I was still in pain from the radiation session, so the staff was nice enough to push me around in a wheelchair. The MRI went as expected. My doc promised to call that afternoon with the results, so I wasn’t stuck waiting again. I had a feeling that she was going to say that the cancer had shown on the MRI so I was a bit prepared. I wasn’t prepared for the news that there were 15 spots on my brain. Only 3 of the 15 were large enough to be treated by radiation. The remaining 12 will be under watch to see if they grow or not.
 
Now while they were trying to figure out the radiation schedule, the docs decided to squeeze in a round of the new chemo. I didn’t worry too much about it, but I probably should have. This chemo is really not my friend. It made me so sick. The anti-nausea pills became my BFF and even then, they didn’t always work. Finally, the chemo worked its way out of my system, just in time to start radiation. The day that I arrived to do the simulation for radiation I was extremely dehydrated. The doctor postponed the simulation and sent me over to get pumped full of hydration. My port then started having issues. Anytime it is accessed they should be able to get a blood return out of it. Sometimes a clot happens, and they have to treat it with some chemical stuff that they leave in overnight. Since the simulation was postponed until the next day, they did the chemical treatment and scheduled another hydration session for before the simulation. When I arrived the next day, my port did everything that it needed to do, and I got some more fluids. I didn’t realize how dehydrated I was until then. I felt so much better.
 
Now to do the simulation. First up was making a mask to keep my head in the same position for the entire procedure. It’s a good thing that I’m not claustrophobic because this mask was a tight fit. Once the mask was molded to my face, they ran the simulation. The results were then sent off to the technicians to make sure everything was lined up. There were a few days lag time between the simulation, and it being finalized, but I was glad for the time to keep building my strength. I ended up having to do two 20-minute radiation sessions. They didn’t cause any pain, just tiredness, so I have an excuse for taking a nap. I am glad to say that radiation is over for now and I have a few days to relax.
 
I met with the chemo doctor again this Monday. She decided it would be best to reduce the amount of chemo due to how sick I was. She also added more anti-nausea meds to the mix, as well as putting me on the stand-by list for hydration if needed. My lab work came back good, so I was able to do chemo on Tuesday. Hopefully all the pre-meds that we added will help keep things smooth sailing. Keep your fingers crossed for me.