First – best costume we had show up last night, three pre-teens/teens dressed up as Lock, Shock and Barrel from The Nightmare Before Christmas, sharing a giant black trash bag as their candy bag was the BEST! I wish I would have thought to ask to take a picture.
Today was my two week check up with Dr. Sikaria, and she agreed, Blink is slightly smaller and a whole lot softer. She was having a hard time being able to define the edges so she could measure. She also said Blink doesn’t feel as “tall” as it was before. I agreed. She said this is good, and this is what we want to be seeing. I still have to go back every two weeks for check ups…
We talked about the fact that I stop peeing after each chemo treatment, and Dr. Sikaria was concerned that I was still taking the Lasix. That was a slight miss-understanding. She thought I was taking it daily, once we confirmed I’ve only been taking it on the day of chemo to try and get the peeing to start instead of edema; she was a little better with it. She still doesn’t want me to take the Lasix if we can avoid it as it is hard on the kidneys and add that with the chemo, we could be doing some damage.
She said she thought the culprit could be the Zofran I am getting intravenously prior to chemo treatments as part of my anti-nausea prophylactics prior to my infusions. I am getting a quadruple dose through the IV as a standard prophylactic, she thinks we can cut that back to 1 x 8 mg oral tablet about an hour prior to infusion and this will stop the Edema and still control nausea. So that is our plan for the next treatment. If I have problems with nausea creeping up, I can add 1/2 tablets to the dose of 1 tablet every 8 hours to get back on top of the nausea. Other than the Edema creating the nausea because I stop processing the chemo drugs out, I have been good with nausea control.
So, that is our new plan. I’m still going to keep the Lasix ready just in case.
I did mention to Dr. Sikaria that this past day one of cycle 2 I was experiencing some Liver pain. It wasn’t a sharp pain, more a of a shooting ache while I was going through the worst of the Edema last Friday night. She palpated my liver and didn’t feel anything. She said as long as the pain doesn’t stay, we should be good.
I forgot to ask her about the new gene variants that were recently announced that brings the total gene variants that indicate a higher risk for breast cancer to nearly 180. Read about it here.
I guess I should try reaching out to the Genetic Testing group that did my gene testing and ask them about this. I am not sure what these new results in identifying these new variants could mean to me and my family.
I do have to admit, as positive as I try to remain, this new tidbit of news occasionally creeps up on me with the slight gray insidious tendril of fear that weaves up through my core to remind me that someone always draws the short straw. TCST, TCST, TCST.
I miss going to Renaissance Fair. First weekend was this past weekend, and knowing so many friends were there and playing was just a little torment. I would love to be able to go, just for a few hours, but I know I don’t have the stamina to drive myself down to Escondido, play for a few hours and then drive back. So I have to try and console myself with pictures that everyone takes and pretend I am there. It’s amazing how much we take something like this for granted until we cannot partake in the fun for some reason or another. I miss that fun… next year!
I am still having problems with peripheral neuropathy in my fingers, feet and lips, and the chemo mouth was a slow build up this time. First cycle, I had chemo mouth almost immediately and it slowly dissipated. This time it has slowly built up and I now have the constant metal taste in my mouth and food is losing its flavor.
All in all, not too much for me to complain about, life is good, I have many uplifting me in prayer and good thoughts, and I am still alive with a lot of hope ahead of me.
Life is all about the hope.