hi friends! I’m 4 treatments in with good ole Captain 11 and wanted to update you on the progress. This chemo is rougher than the last few I’ve been on. I’m pretty much nauseated all day, every day. I can manage this pretty well with my different anti-nausea meds, but its definitely taking a toll on my appetite. I’m also suffering from insomnia and just a little bit of diarrhea. All things I can control with meds, it’s just getting the right combo down which I’m trying to do these past few weeks. My fatigue is at a pretty high level (not helped by the insomnia), but I’m resting as much as possible between all these doc appointments.
The new development is fluid is back in my lungs. I guess a pocket of fluid was left in my lungs after my surgery in June. That’s fairly common with the pluerodesis surgery where the talc will sear around a little bit of fluid. It hasn’t bothered me at all over the past few months, but now it’s getting bigger and it has started to cause symptoms. I have a dry cough and weeziness in my lung when I lie down and I’m increasingly short of breath.
So on Monday morning I’ll go in for a procedure to drain the fluid out. As opposed to the more routine thorancentisis I used to get all the time, this one will be more involved because its in the middle of my lung lobes (the right lung has 3 lobes). So they will have to use a CT xray to go in exactly where the fluid is and use a larger catheter to get the fluid out. I’ll thankfully be asleep for the whole thing. It’s just a day procedure, so I get to go home the same day and just deal with some soreness in my side where they’ll go in.
I also got a color photo of the inside of my lung/lining from my June surgery. It’s pretty amazing to see the full cavity filled with talc power (and it’s French talc at that, oh la la). The sad thing is you can see a bunch of tumors on the lung lining. It’s not the prettiest image, but those tumors are staying steady so if Captain 11 actually works they may even shrink.
We’ll check my CA 27.29 (cancer markers) on October 2nd which will give us a good indication of how this chemo is working. And my next full CT scan should be early November.
In GREAT news, today was Desmond’s first day of kindergarten. I remember just sobbing on my therapists couch when I was first diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer saying I wouldn’t be able to hold his hand and walk him into Kindergarten. And look…it happened!! And I have every intention of being around to walk him into 1st grade too. He’s got an amazing teacher and Quincy (and another friend) are in class with him, so he is a very happy camper (and so is mama).
And Colleen and I leave on 9/27 for 4 days in Hawaii to visit our close friend Andrea. It will be 4 days of lazing on the beach, drinking some mai tais, good hawaiian food and a TON of laughter. I can not wait!
Thanks as always for continuing on this never ending journey with me. You all mean so much! xo