Tag: cancer-treatment

My Cancer Journey X

My Cancer Journey X

Again, a fortnight since my last entry. Some of it has to do with the cumulative effects the cavalcade of drugs has had on me. At this writing (February 6th), I am through three-quarters of my treatments with the last three treatments already scheduled. So, it is time to go over the drugs I will be taking in the next exciting episode…

A Walking Chemistry Set

Prior to my scheduled visits on October 9th, I had a look see at what my Oncologist will have injected into my body. The mix was developed specifically to target cells found in my rectum – the same cells found on my liver. After reading about the drugs, I spilled out the formula to those on my Facebook feed:

Still no word on when I start Chemotherapy. It’s one of those “Hurry up and wait” deals, I suppose.

My mail today contained the official approval of the drugs being used on me over a period of 24 weeks beginning whenever. I just did a Google search of the drugs being used. Quite the cocktail.

The list was headed with something called Oxaliplatin. Nothing to see here, that is, if you don’t mind a little nausea, vomiting, fever, fatigue, and hair loss. As a bonus, the Oxaliplatin contains Platinum – the same stuff used in Catalytic Converters. Probably not a good idea to let certain people know… I could find someone underneath me attempting to steal and sell the Platinum.

Some of the effects of Oxaliplatin are partially abated by a folic acid called Leucovarin. Side effects include skin rash, itching, and wheezing. I thought something was said about the drug causing an altered mental state. I wonder how I could tell.

Then there is Fluorouracil. I could find nothing about it on Google. I have concluded that no one really knows what the hell it is. Sort of like non-dairy coffee creamer.

Finally, there are a couple of drugs designed specifically to prevent nausea or vomiting. Well and fine until the last drug, something called Fosaprepitant. There was a whole raft of possible side effects connected with it – some of them I don’t wish to mention in mixed company.

And I have yet to ask about the possible effects of using CBD gummies in preventing nausea. I’ve heard that smoking cigarettes with no name on them does a cancer patient a lot of good – one of my neighbors indulges in the weed – but I quit smoking thirty years ago this weekend and I am not about to take up the habit again, even if it’s not tobacco this time.

All I have to do now is wait. I have enough drugs to qualify as a walking chemistry experiment. More when I get the word.

My immediate reaction after reading through the list was that I was about to become a walking chemistry set. As far as the aftereffects of the drug combination are concerned, they will be covered as this narrative continues.

I really don’t know if this treatment will cure me of my ills (or cure any stray cells residing in me) but I am positive that the regimen will do me better than some of the “cures” out there being offered by people lacking medical degrees.

Going back to 2016, the Food and Drug Administration listed no less than 187 fake cures for cancer. Not surprisingly, the fake cures gain attention from desperate people.

My father, for one, started taking Shark Cartilage pills, based on the premise that sharks don’t get cancer and that the pills would help to at least keep his Melanoma at bay.

It didn’t. He still had a bottle and a half of the shark pills when he passed.

Comedian Andy Kaufman was said to have traveled out of the country to someone who promised to remove Kaufman’s small-cell lung cancer – a miracle cure. Turns out that the cancer removed from Kaufman was chicken liver. The cure, ineffective. It did nothing but offer hope to people desperate enough to believe the cure would work.

Hope is what hooks people into believing in “Drugs” like “Laetrile” – derived from almond seeds, Laetrile had people in the United States driving down to Mexico after the FDA found that the drug didn’t work. In fact, Laetrile contained some of the building blocks of Cyanide. Cyanide may have killed the cancer cells, but at the same time, it would go on to kill the person taking the Cyanide as well.

And then there was a story of a Florida Man who, through his fake church, was convicted of selling bleach as a miracle cure for the dreaded disease. I feel sorry for those who bought into his scam.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of legitimate purveyors of cancer treatments out there. Clinics abound with some degree of success. Places like “The James” at Ohio State University. The Mayo Clinic. Cleveland Clinic. M. D. Anderson here in the Lone Star State, as well as Texas Oncology. The cure, if you can call it that, ain’t easy. Writing this after just four cycles of Chemo, I can already attest to some of the difficulties I was told I might encounter.

For now, though, I plan to walk the reader through the process I’ve been going through as seen through my eyes… and through a little of my sense of humor.

Like when I described myself as a walking Chemistry Set.

As a side note to this chapter, I asked my Oncologist about taking Marinol for my decreased appetite. She prescribed something else and the request was denied. Something having to do with weight gain or weight loss medications not being allowed on Medicare. No big deal. At least for me…

My Cancer Journey IX

My Cancer Journey IX

With apologies to those of you following this blog. Last week, I was dealing with some unexpected financial matters. I will blog about what happened a bit later. During the meanwhilst, we are about to find out what happened during my next visit to my Oncologist…

The Devil in Details

“What happened to you and why didn’t you tell me?”

My Oncologist wasn’t very happy that I was in her exam room with a pair of crutches. She was equally unhappy that I had gone to the Emergency Room without telling her. My take was that I was too busy being in pain and hoping for an end to my misery to even think about calling her.

Carol was with me. She was introduced to My Oncologist. After the niceties, we got down to business.

Twelve rounds of Chemotherapy over 24 weeks, starting as soon as possible.

It wasn’t as if they had left a few cancer cells hanging out on my liver. They had all been ablated – they had disappeared, headed to a lab where someone in a lab coat determined that the cancer on my liver was the same sort of cancer found on my rectum two and a half years earlier.

She then told me that even though the cancer had disappeared, she was recommending a series of chemotherapy treatments to ensure that any stragglers that may have been in hiding would no longer be floating around in other parts of my body ready to attack. The reasoning was sound. So, why not?

There were several steps leading to treatment, the first being approval from the insurance people. Well, there were two approvals, the first being the installation of a port up in my chest so the drugs could be pumped into my system.

The first approval came rather quickly.

Two weeks after my consultation with my Oncologist, I was back at the hospital to have a port installed. The procedure itself took less than ten minutes and was done while I was semi-awake. Prior to the procedure, I was given topical anesthesia to cover for the small incision needed to insert the device. Just before the actual operation, I was given something that allowed me to be mostly awake while the device was installed.

A half hours’ worth of recovery and I was good to go, with Carol driving, of course.

Then there was the wait for approval of my treatment. My Oncologist advised me that she wanted to get me started as soon as possible – perhaps as soon as the Wednesday after the port was installed. Once every two weeks starting September 20th.

That ship sailed. Not unexpected, since I would have gotten the green light from my insurance carrier before any action needed to be taken.

In the meantime, I was scheduled for a couple of classes on how to be a cancer patient. At least that’s the way I describe it. The first class came nearly at the end of September. I had a session with a Nurse Practitioner via telemedicine. We had a lovely chat where she explained what I would be taking and in what order I would be taking each medicine. She then told me of what she would be prescribing for me to pick up at the Princeton Pharmacy. Of five prescriptions she sent, four were pills to be taken to prevent nausea and vomiting. The other was for a cream I was to put on the skin over the port an hour before my infusion started.

The second class was much like the first, except I met a different Nurse Practitioner in The Oncologist’s office where I had questions about the treatment I would start getting on Wednesday, the eleventh of October.

There were certain roadblocks left to go around. I had a pair of appointments with Texas Vision and Lazer Center, one on the same day of my visit with the Nurse Practitioner at the Oncologist’s office, and the other a week later, on what would be day 6 of my first round of Chemotherapy. One of the questions I asked was whether the drug the doctor at TVLC was going to interfere with any of the drugs I would be getting with my Chemo. I was assured that there was no problem, other than having Carol drive me to the session where I was going to have the dilation.

I made a call to my Primary Care Physician’s office about the continuing saga with my right leg. I was running short on Eliquis and wondered if I still needed to take it. My PCP said that he wanted to see what was going on himself. On Monday. The same day I was to have the session with my Oncologist’s NP and on the same day I was having my first session with TVLC. Fortunately my session with my PCP was later than either of the other two appointments.

My Monday (10/9) was, therefore, busy. In fact, I likened Monday and the rest of the week to resemble a Railway Timetable.

We’ll get back to what transpired later. Next, a word or two about the drugs I’ll be taking.