Too Much Trouble to Live?

I’ll hold off on writing about the details of the SIR Sphere procedure until it gets approved by the insurance company. There’s no sense writing about something that may not even happen. I will however fill you in on all that is happening leading up to and in preparation for the procedure. Dr. Jabbour, the radiology oncologist, had a discussion with Dr. George, the Chemo Kaiser, and they decided it would be best to continue chemotherapy until it must be stopped for the SIR Spheres. I believe that Dr. George’s response was “We’ll find something to shoot into him” while she was holding a can of Drano. You’ll recall that several weeks ago we learned that the chemo regime I had been receiving has stopped working. So today I began a new regime with my 27th treatment. For those who are interested it consists of Cisplatin and Irinotecan. Cisplatin is a carryover from the last regime. Irinotecan, also known as CPT11, is new. Dropped from the cocktail was taxotere, 5fu and the leucovorin that “boosted” the 5fu. I think the 5fu was the nastiest of the drugs, the one causing the worst of the side effects. But I believe it is the one most responsible for giving me 16 more months of life. It’s also the drug that was delivered through the infusion pump that I had to wear for 48 hours with each treatment so I’m happy to be saying a great big FU to the 5fu. I’m hoping to have fewer side effects with the new regime. The most common side effect with the Irinotecan is diarrhea. If that’s true why don’t they change the name of it to “I ran to can”? As I write this I am realizing that I did not receive Herceptin today. I was of the impression that the Herceptin would continue so I’ll have to inquire about that. You may recall that Herceptin is an antibody originally approved for breast cancer that was added fairly recently because I tested positive for the HER2 gene. I want to make sure my breasts are taken care of. I had been looking forward to some time off from chemo but, truth be told, I’m kind of glad to be getting it. The SIR Spheres, if they help, will only help the liver. I still need to be keeping everything else in check. The new regime is a three week cycle, week one on, week two on and week three off. There is testing that needs to be done before the SIR Spheres, namely a blood test and a CT scan. Yesterday Dr. Nosher’s people called to tell me to schedule the CT scan which we scheduled for Friday. Then they told me the blood test had to be scheduled before that. I told them that blood is drawn for testing with every chemo treatment so since that would be today I would just tell them what other tests were needed and it could all be done at once. The scheduler said “great!” and I thought things were clicking. Not so fast. Dr. Nosher’s assistant then called to tell me the blood test had to be done at lease one day AFTER chemo, but before the CT scan, with enough time to get the results to the radiology people BEFORE the scan. What the hell? By my calculations that would mean they’d have to draw the blood while I sleep tonight. Anyway the good people at the chemo lounge agreed to delay taking my blood until tomorrow and we’ll hope it gets to the radiology people on time. If not the CT scam may be postponed. That would be inconvenient because the reason the blood test is important to them is because of what they saw on the last blood test. It seems my creatinine level is high. This is a measure of kidney function. For protection they prescribed a liquid for me to begin drinking the day before the scan because the scan is done with contrast. The contrast is injected and can damage the kidney. So I’ll have to begin drinking it Thursday morning not knowing for sure that I’ll be getting the scan on Friday. Do you think I’m going to too much trouble to try to live? I’m not sure I’m worth it. --------------------------------------------------