Chemo Round 12

Monday 19 to Wednesday 21 September was chemotherapy round 12.  I arrived at the hospital just after 7.30 am for my blood test.  After coffee in the café, I saw Dr Lisa just after 9 am.  Good news – my blood was working fine and I was fighting fit for chemo!  I mentioned that numbness in my fingers and toes had seemed to increase and that I sometimes now felt unsteady when standing – feeling as if I am swaying.

I could tell that Lisa was concerned about the swaying.  She decided to stop my second chemotherapy, which is the culprit for causing the numbness and most of my queasiness.  This means that my treatment at the hospital is reduced by about 2.5 hours.  Lisa said the numbness would increase for about another four weeks before receding.  I have noticed that my handwriting is messier than normal.

The three chemotherapies I have been receiving are:

• Avastin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bevacizumab
• Oxalipatin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxaliplatin, which causes the numbness
• Fluorouracil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorouracil, which is the one in bottle form

So for chemo round 12 and the proposed round 13 in three weeks I am receiving Avastin and Fluorouracil.  On Tuesday October 11, I am having a CT scan.  I will see Dr Lisa on Wednesday 12 and discuss the results.  We are expecting that after chemo round 13 I will move to maintenance chemo.  The maintenance chemo will consist of Avastin administered once every three weeks at the hospital with two weeks in between being chemo in tablet form – one in the morning and one in the evening.  I mentioned that some women patients told me they had severe reactions.  Lisa said that due to metabolism differences, men usually do not have much reaction.  Hope this is the case for me.

‘Why are you suggesting maintenance chemo?’ I asked Lisa.  The aim is to prolong the time before the cancer starts to grow again, ie extend life.  Lisa said there is no research that shows whether this works or not.  She tends to prescribe the treatment for patients who have handled the chemo well in their initial treatment and thinks it is the best option.

I began my reduced chemo treatment before midday and was home after 1 pm, when I had some lunch.  With the bottle attached earlier, it was completely empty by the time I returned to the hospital for ‘de-accessing’ at 3 pm on Wednesday.

My diversion therapy during this round has been Monday night dinner out at Tommy’s Beer Cafe on Glebe Point Road with family; Tuesday lunch with Cameron at Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL Club; and Thursday breakfast with Barbara, Noel and Lynne Jones at Crumb Italian Kitchen, Shop 5/114 Majors Bay Road, Concord.  Tomorrow I am facilitating the financial modules of the Company Directors Course in the city.

An additional hassle during this chemo round 12 is that I messed up my computer.  I downloaded some software for a course I am attending with Katharine and Phil on Sunday.  For whatever reason it resulted in duplicating the applications folder.  So, I proceeded to delete the ‘duplicate’ icons and actually deleted the applications.  Well, I stopped it before it finished but software such as Office 2008 was gone.  Well, after some attempts with limited success myself, my son helped me today.  Thankfully, I have a hard disk attached to the computer that automatically backs up – using the ‘time machine’ software in the iMac.  By installing Office 2008 from the original disk and then reinstalling from the Office version on the 14 September backup – all back to normal – phew!  I cannot explain why this worked but I am glad it did.

At the moment one son's partner is off to the USA for two months, our daughter is returning from the UK.  Life continues and we will soon have six of us living here at Club 55 for two months.  Like the Australian TV program, we are Packed to the Rafters, and loving it!