August 31, 2009

• Cycle 2 begins....

  Posted by Stephanie 8:50pm CST from the apartment Houston, TX

  Eeeesh, I didn't realize it had been a whole week since I had posted. I had it in my head that I did an entry late last week, but I must have dreamt that up. Anyway, let's get up to date.

  I was able to get the first dose of cycle 2 today as planned. My platelets were a major problem last week, and there was serious doubt that they would be high enough to start the second cycle. Once they finally bottomed out at 19 (no transfusion, yay!) and started to climb back up, they did so at snail speed. Up four one day, then six the next, then 10.....finally last Friday, after a solid week of daily labs (ouch!), my platelets were above 50 and I could quit getting daily bloodwork. However, my platelets needed to be above 100 to start the next cycle, so we were left to wait until bloodwork today to see if they had managed to climb high enough. They were 131 this morning--higher than I expected. That's great, since the higher they are when I start, the more cushion I have when they start dropping.

  I did see Dr. Benjamin this morning, as I always do before starting a cycle, and he actually surprised me by asking if I wanted to hear some hopeful news. Um, hello, of course! He said that according to this morning's chest x-ray, it looks as though the growth rate has slowed down or even maybe started to go in the other direction. He said it's hard to tell for sure on the chest x-ray, and that the CT scan after this cycle will give much more information, but right now, it's looking as though it's responding (at least a little!) to the Gemtax. HOORAY!! I don't think I realized how much I needed a little bit of good news until I heard it--it's like getting a second wind when you're ready to collapse. He also said he anticipates my platelet issues to get worse as we go on, which is no surprise. I see many platelet transfusions in my future.

  So, chemo for today is done. Mom and I did a rousing rendition of the "chemo dance" as the Gemcitabine infused. I'm tellin' ya, it's proven to make the chemo work better. I'm sure anyone who walked by thought we looked ridiculous. The only thing I feel so far tonight is some nasty hot flashes--the air is on high, and yet I'm sweating just sitting here in the recliner. That happened after the Day 1 infusion last time, and it shouldn't last long.

  In other news, mom and I bought plane tickets over the weekend to fly home tomorrow. It was a risk, since there was a chance my platelets wouldn't be high enough to get chemo today, but just in case, we scheduled the flight for late in the day so I could've gotten Tuesday chemo if needed. Thankfully, I didn't need that, so we'll head home tomorrow and be able to stay until Sunday evening, when we fly back. Mom and I had been tossing around the idea of trying to get home for the second and third weeks of the cycle, since that'd give us more time at home, but with the platelet issues, we opted to come home between Day 1 and Day 8 instead. Getting bloodwork and transfusions at home is much more complicated, and unless I know it can be done right, I don't want to mess with it. It's a long story, one I'll share in another post. Surprisingly, we got great prices on the tickets--otherwise we might not have been able to swing the trip home. All that matters right now is that I get to see my husband, and my cat, and friends and family, and be in my own house.

  Evidently the weather back home is feeling more like fall than late summer right now. I'm looking forward to that. It's cooler here than it has been, but it's still in the low 90's during the day and only down into the 70's at night. Not too bad to do our evening walks in, but you've still got a good sheen of sweat after a lap or two. Yummy. Take care everyone--I'll post again from home later this week!

  --Steph

  • 10:39 pm
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