Cycle 6 on St Patrick's Day

Half way through. I had the 6th chemo infusion today - here is a pic of the line being dressed, prior to the pump connection. It is a most unflattering photo of me.

The nurse is Irish and today is Paddy's Day. Note the temporary tattoo. At least she wasn't wearing a headband with nodding shamrocks, though one of the nurses was.

I am feeling pretty good, though the blood test news wasn't all that wonderful. The tumour marker increased from 1300 to 1700. The oncologist said that wasn't significant as it often fluctuates, but I can't help feeling disappointed. However, since I had a reduced dose last time, maybe that was a factor. The referral for the CT scan was made - now waiting for an appointment time. It will be done at Royal Perth (public hospital) since it is related to the clinical trial I am involved in.

Four Months

It is exactly four months today since I was diagnosed with metastatic liver cancer and began the journey of treatment to attempt to contain it.

I cannot believe how the time has passed. Of course, the regularity of medical appointments of various kinds has assisted. When every fortnight has four regular demands: blood test one day, oncologist meeting and four hours of chemo the next, pump removal two days later, PICC flush and dressing seven days after that, it does tend to make the time pass quite quickly. Then it all starts again.

I have been rather mimsy the last two days. Mimsy is a word our family borrowed many years ago from Lewis Carroll's poem, Jabberwocky ("all mimsy were the borograves and the mome raths outgrabe") to describe a state of mild sadness and depression. The condition requires family members to tread lightly and definitely NOT to offer gratuitous cheer. It generally passes quite quickly with minimal effects on both the sufferer and the family. I am hoping that the start of cycle 6 on Wednesday will bring an end to it for me.

Tired

I am really tired and it is all my own fault. Yesterday I went to a textile group meeting in the morning. It is a half hour drive from home along the freeway and I am finding driving needs my complete concentration these days. It was extremely hot and I left the meeting early and drove home. Once home I had a bit of a rest, but did not nap - which I should have done.

Later that afternoon we went to the opening of a sculpture exhibition on the foreshore of the Canning River. We loved the sculptures, especially these ones (Bottle Bream) made from plastic bottles, commenting on how plastic waste is affecting our waterways. Bream is a play on words (it is pronounced brim and is a fish that was once very common in the river, but is less so now. It also refers to the rim of the discarded bottles and how they are multiplying - "brimming over")

It was a very enjoyable evening - it had cooled down after what had been a VERY hot day (28 degrees Celsius after a 41 degree maximum) and it was most pleasant to sit after we had viewed the sculpture pieces and enjoy a glass of bubbly and some food while listening to the obligatory speeches.

Today I went to the meeting of my favourite textile group - Designing Women. It was the AGM and we spent quite a long time trying to get members to take up executive positions. I have been Treasurer, but resigned the position for this year. While I want to keep up with my groups, I don't think I need the pressure involved in leadership positions. Eventually all the positions were filled, and we had a workshop on recycling a couple of T-shirts to make one with a reverse applique decoration, followed by a talk from a local fashion designer who uses natural dyes and recycled materials to make her beautiful garments. I was really drooping by this time, but hung on for her talk before I gave in and went home.

I have had a brief nap, but I think I will be early to bed. And Kevin is right - it IS my own fault for doing too much. Tomorrow I plan on doing nothing much at all. It will be day 12 of cycle 5 - Wednesday is the start of Cycle 6, when I will be halfway through the treatment.

And it is yet another day

Thank you to everyone who is reading the blog. I sometimes feel it is just too banal and nobody will be interested in details of my feeding and bowel movements - important as they are to me though.

I haven't lost any weight these last three weeks and as I said before - I can afford to lose it. Now I am not nauseous I eat 3 meals a day even if they taste blah. The only foods I cannot eat any more (BOOHOO! because I love them) are spicy ones, especially curries. They are painful on my tongue and lips.

I have been working on my textile art for the last 2 days (more information in My Textile Blog in the sidebar). I think trying to do the things that I have enjoyed in the past has helped me not to dwell on what a godawful fight I am facing.

Today has been an "ordinary"one. No nausea, no diarrhoea, no taste. PICC line flush tomorrow.

A nice night out

Kevin's nephew and his wife live in Colorado and are presently back here in Perth for a visit and so he can sell a million dollar unit he (and I presume the bank) owns. It is in a magnificent position with fabulous views, that I would like to look at every day. Quite beyond our pockets though! We were invited to a family gathering for cocktails at sunset. Most enjoyable - I drank bubbly. We left reasonably early because I got tired, even though I spent most of the evening sitting down.

View down river towards South Perth.

View across to Perth city as the sun set.

I have been feeling OK since the chemo on Wednesday. After pump-off on Friday I had lunch with my sister at the Art Gallery Cafe. We shared a single serving - we both find cafe servings are really too large. It was a very nice quiche with salad a balsamic dressing and tasted good. Afterwards we went to look at the annual exhibition of High School students artworks. It gets better every year.

Cycle 5

My white blood cells were OK in yesterday's test, so I had my 5th infusion of oxaliplatin, fluorouracil and leucovorin today and am now home with the attached pump feeding in 100ml of fluorouracil over the next 46 hours.

The oncologist wants me to continue on a fortnightly treatment regime so he has lowered the dosages. Apparently I received the maximum doses on the first four cycles and that was a bit too toxic for my white cells. I am quite happy to continue with fortnightly treatments - I want this over and done with ASAP.

A bit of good news - the CEA (tumor marker) continues to fall and is now 1300, compared to 9000 on initial testing. Still a long way to go, but a really good sign that the chemo is doing the cancers some damage.

I am now booked for another CT scan at the end of this month, though I don't know the exact date as yet. I can't wait! Hoping for good news of course, but really want to know if this has been worth while. I will have had my 6th, maybe even my 7th cycle by the time it is done, so I will be more than halfway through the course.

Feeling Good

The extra week without chemo has been great. The finger tingling has almost disappeared - I can get stuff out of the fridge easily, though it's a bit more difficult from the freezer. Food tastes quite good, if a little bland - I seem to be using more seasoning. My mouth and nose are not sore, though there is still a bit of a nose drip. I have had two nights where I slept straight through. I am still getting tired very quickly though and need to rest a lot.

I am still having problems with the knee I hurt when I fell over almost a fortnight ago. It is still very swollen and painful and the bruising has progressed down my leg almost to the ankle. I also have a painful bruise on the other leg - not sure where that one came from. I am not sure whether all this is cancer related or not, so I will be asking some questions on Wednesday.

Blood test tomorrow and oncologist on Wednesday, followed by chemo if the blood is OK. Hope so, I want to get this treatment done with.