Chemo Treatment #5 Completed and Scans Soon

I completed chemo #5 today.  I'm getting pretty used to it and not having a lot of extreme side effects anymore, just a few minor annoying ones like:  clumsiness from probable mild neuropathy in my hands (I can't seem to hold on to anything), numbness tongue, taste issues with several foods, including red meat, and my endurance is extremely diminished.

Next Monday will be my 6th chemo and I will completed two "rounds" of 3 chemo treatments.  The week after, a CT scan will be done.  This scan will give us an idea of whether the chemo is working.  The results will show that the tumors on the previous scan (the one I did before the first chemo) have either shrunk or progressed.

Today's Visit

I went in today for blood work.  They ran a CBC.  My WBC (white blood cells) and LYMPH (lymphocites) are back in the normal range.  These are the immune system related stats that were low last week.  This time, my HGB and HCT were below normal range.  These are the red blood cell stats that cause anemia when low.  My HGB is 8.0 and they said when it gets below 8.0, I have to have a blood transfusion.  They told me to eat foods high in iron and gave me a list (below).

Round 1 Abraxane and Neupogen shots completed

Round 1 of the Abraxane is complete.  The combination of Anakinra (the trial drug which also effects the immune system) and the Abraxane took a major toll on my immune system.  I was forced to take three days of Neupogen shots to force my bones to make more white blood cells.  It was rough, but I made it through.

Chemo #3 Completed

It's 3:44 am Tuesday morning and I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd post about today's treatment.  I'm still on the trial and giving myself shots every day.  I'm starting to get local allergic reactions every time I do it now.  They say it's OK to continue and not a big deal.  They advised me to use some benedryl creme if it bothered me.

Abraxane Insert

I found the actual insert that comes with the chemo drug they have me on, Abraxane (aka nab paclitaxol).  It sounds pretty nasty on paper.

FULL PRESCRIBING INFORMATION ABRAXANE® for Injectable Suspension (paclitaxel protein-bound particles for injectable suspension) (albumin-bound)

First Treatment Abraxane

This first chemo took me a few days to recuperate from.  Today is the first day I've really been up moving around or doing much of anything other than what I absolutely had to do.  The chemo really wiped me out and I had some ongoing stomach pain that is a combination of the treatment side effects, liver metastasis and bone metastasis in my ribs.

Update and Upcoming Stuff

I just wanted to post a quick update on what is going on currently and what is coming up.  I spent the weekend in bed and am still on a liquid/soft food diet.  I stayed on pain meds and ibuprofen all weekend.

Today I'm back to work, so no pain meds.  We've had a lot of calls this morning because of people being out and my throat is getting sore from talking.  According to what I've read and been told, the radiation is still in effect in my body for 2 weeks after the final treatment (Friday) and it takes 4-6 weeks for the damage to heal completely.  So I'm probably looking at a few more weeks of this.

Quick Update

Today has been rather hectic between working and doctor's visits, radiation, and cancer group tonight, so I'm going to keep it brief tonight because I haven't had time to do any research to really say much more anyhow.

I went in to see my local oncologist expecting to find out about, and sign off on the forms, for the Paloma-3 trial, but when I got there they had me scheduled with a PA I had never met before and he had no idea why I was even there.  After I gave yet another doctor a summary of why I was there and what I was expecting, he excused himself and went and called my oncologist on the phone.  He came back with a rather vague idea of what was going on and really couldn't answer any of my questions.

What it comes down to, is that I failed to qualify for the Paloma 3 trial because it is ineffective on the type of tumors I have.  That's about all I got out of him regarding that.  I plan to ask more questions next week when I see the oncologist.

I informed him I have been off treatment since the beginning of June and requested to know what was being recommended as the next course of treatment.  I was told Abraxane.  Abraxane is an IV chemo drug.  It is similar to Taxol which I had at the very beginning of all of this in 2009.  It was the first one I did for 12 weeks once a week and tolerated fairly well.  If you'd like a refresher on how that went, here's a link to a search that will show all the articles mentioning taxol:  Click here for links to previous Taxol related blog posts.

This time, I'd be doing it once a week for 3 weeks and taking 1 week off and repeating as long as it appeared to be effective.  It's a 2 hour process.  I'm seriously dreading it and really want to find out what made her choose this treatment over others like Afinitor which is an m-tor inhibitor that MD Anderson had suggested.  I'll know more next week when I get to talk to her.

Until then, I'll be reading up on it and looking to see what all options I have.  Here's the rough schedule they gave me today:

7/10 - Last day of radiation(8 down, 2 to go!)
7/11 or 7/14 - CT Scan
7/16 - Oncologist visit