Uttc's Blog

January 22, 2010

Well, I’ve just finished my last scheduled IV infusion of the four-round EP chemo.  Step one is done, but the process is nowhere near over.

Now its time for bi-weekly blood tests, and CT and PET scans sometime in March to see if any of the pre-chemo growths in the lymph nodes have shrunk or disappeared.  Due to their size from the beginning, I’ve  been advised that they will very likely not ever completely disappear.    Therefore, we will never really know if the cancer has all been killed by the chemo unless I have the lymph nodes removed in the future for biopsy.  If they’re positive, then more chemo.  If negative, more observation.

Should further CAT and PET scans later in the year show growth from the March scans, then one can assume the cancer is still there, and again, surgury would be the next step.  The RPLND surgury to remove the nodes is NO PICNIC and considered major surgery with a week-long hospital stay.  It involves a full incision from the lower abdomen to the upper chest–the whole stomach and chest.  All kinds of opporunities for complications.

The best outcome would be no lymph node growth in the next few years, and the cancer is gone, at least for now. 

Time will tell . . .

At least my weeks of sitting in a chair hooked up to an IV for 5 hours a day are over for a while!  Maybe someday my taste buds will come back, and I’ll get some energy back over time.  I’m tired of being a slug who can’t taste anything, has no appetite, and can barely hear anything.  The digestion mystery is getting old too.   Gas for a day, runs for a day, nothing for a day, heartburn for a day,  . . . Something new every day, but seldom “normal.”    My hearing is still shot, and they’re still saying “permanently” to that.   I’m also keeping my fingers crossed for no neuropathy.(numbness in hands and feet) in the next few weeks.  That’s a side effect that often shows up after treatment.  So far, so good on that one.