Originally sent in an email on March 22, 2014
Hey
So we received really good news from the first CT scan
results. The tumors in my liver and lung are both less dense and
smaller. This means that, so far, the chemo is working! Now it's early,
so we are not jumping through hoops yet, but this really great news and
confirms what I have been feeling inside. Honestly, I went into the
meeting with the oncologist without feeling nervous at all. It was
actually a funny session, as we immediately jumped into discussing
issues with the fourth session and how we could mitigate them in the
fifth session. Just the fact that we were talking a fifth session meant
the CT results had to have been positive, but Dr. Wolpin did not come
right out and say it. So I brought it up as sort of the..."so, I take
it with these discussions that we had a good CT scan...?" He looked a
bit embarrassed, and said yes quite good. We had a few laughs and he
walked us through what we described above. Karla and I hugged and had
some tears in our eyes (tears of happiness for a change). So the plan is
continue onwards - no change to the chemo schedule. It's working so
let's hope it continues to work.
There was a small caveat. I
have been getting this really bad jaw and upper body pain, generally on
the second day. Dr. Wolpin wanted to fully eliminate heart issues from the
equation. Apparently, this pain manifests itself in two ways based on
two of the different drugs I am taking. In one case, it's just a side
effect that has to be managed (through Tylenol), but in the more rarer
cases, it may be a strain on the heart, and the chemo regimen may have
to be changed. So we were scheduled to come back in the next day for an
EKG on my heart (just a bunch of wires attached to the body) to make
sure it wasn't the latter. Unfortunately,the pain did not really hit me
until late in the day so we did not get in until Day 3. But the
results came back negative - regular heartbeat. I finished the chemo
session around 2:30 yesterday and Karla hooked me up to some fluids. We
detached everything around 6PM and now we go through the regular two
week routine before the next session. I was a bit more lethargic over
the past two days as we dialed back on the steroid.
Karla's folks
have been helpful this week, and will be heading back to Myrtle Beach
later today. This morning, Karla and I will be visiting a realtor in
the area to start the process of looking for a new home this summer (I
won't be in temporary housing forever). We are also getting closer to
the au pair's arrival in April and hope to Skype with her this weekend
to see how things are going.
Very happy to pass on good news. All the best.
Andrew
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