Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Cycle Four and some good news

We went off to the oncologist early this morning prior to the fourth round of chemo. No problems with the blood counts. The liver function indicators are showing improvement - I don't have details, so don't know exactly what or how much - but any improvement is heartening. The best news was that the tumour marker is dropping fast - from 9100 in December to 2000 yesterday. Still enormous of course - a normal reading for someone without cancer is 5 or 6 - but a good indication that the chemo is working to reduce the tumours. I will be having another CT scan in March - probably after my 6th treatment - and hope for really good news then. And he had a look at the lump on my jaw and thought it might be an abscessed tooth (fits with the tooth ache prior and the speed with which the lump developed). So I have a dentist's appointment tomorrow for an examination and decision on further treatment.

The clinic was full today so I had to go upstairs to the specialist cancer ward for my chemo. The ward deals with all kinds of different cancer treatments and I thought they were less organised than the Ivy suite where my previous treatments have been. It took longer too - almost an extra hour - mostly because they were waiting for the various bags of poison to come from Pharmacy.
And the sequence of administration was different - I got Avastin first rather than as the last drug. I will be checking this with the oncologist when I see him next - a fortnight away - because I wonder if sequencing is important for the clinical trial, and I have to go to the ward again next time because the clinic is fully booked.

I am feeling OK, except for the side effects directly related to Oxyplatin - tingling fingers and tongue with cool (not even cold) things and the return of the metallic taste in the mouth.

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