Moving Along

Last week I had chemo treatment number 45, full doses of carboplatin and paclitaxel. Blood tests revealed that my CEA count has skyrocketed to 533.7 but I have been off chemo for a while. Hopefully the resumption will be effective and bring that back down. Interestingly, my liver function numbers have stabilized, in fact even improved slightly. I guess the chemo affects the liver function as do the tumors themselves.

It seems that this particular regimen is tough on me. It tends to result in three days of extreme fatigue, nausea and general discomfort. Just as it did when I first attempted it back in January, it made me feel like I was going to die and if I wasn’t, I wanted to. But thankfully that has passed.

Interestingly, I received a call from Dr. Rybalov, the gastroenterologist. He said he was speaking to Dr. Weiner, the nephrologist about me and they thought it would be a good idea if I started a combination of diuretics to try to alleviate some of the fluid build up. Dr. George already prescribed a diuretic so I’m having her get in touch with him to coordinate. What impressed me was the fact that two weeks after I saw him, Dr. Rybalov was still thinking about me. I’ve been lucky with doctors and in fact the whole health care system throughout this. And for the record, it has nothing to do with the recent national health care reforms other than the fact that I’m now paying more for the coverage.

Over the past two and one half weeks I’ve had the paracentesis twice. They removed 10 liters of fluid each time. I’m now getting albumin infusions with each procedure. Interestingly, the albumin looks like the fluid coming out. I think they may just be recycling the stuff back into me.

Over the last week I had to inject myself with neupogen so hopefully my blood counts will be good and I’ll be able to get the second round of chemo this week as scheduled. We’ll see. And we’ll carry on.

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