Chemo 11

We went to chemo session 11 last Tuesday. Scott is doing well overall, no real concerns beyond the normal ones. His bp is a bit high but nothing earth shaking. He also started getting some headaches which Dr M will be monitoring. The chemo session went off without any issues.

We had to share a room for a while because they were crowded. It turned out to be a good thing because it was yet another moment where both Scott and I realized how lucky we are. The man was from Fairfax. He has stage 4 colon cancer, spread to his lungs. Probably in his early 50s. He has been battling this for 3.5 years and is now allergic to most chemo drugs. He is at G'town in a trial that gives him some drug to see if it can slow down the cancer, not shrink it, not cure it. If it doesn't work - which they will know within 2 weeks - then that's it -- he is out of the trial and there are no more known treatments for him. This guy was also being made very sick from the meds. He was throwing up and just nauseatious the entire way to the hospital and while he was there. He was still in fairly good spirits and very nice. I asked him a lot of questions. He said he didn't really have any symptoms prior to this -- however while he was in the bathroom, his brother in law told us that this guy's wife had colon cancer too but they caught it early. She urged him to get checked and and sure enough. Very odd coincidence I think. He also said that he did have some signs like constipation. Again, we are very fortunate.

So Scott has one more Folfox treatment to go. We talked to Dr M about what will go on after that. They will schedule him for a CTScan and he will proceed every 2 weeks with the Avastin drug. It will be a few hours as opposed to a 6 hour process every 2 weeks. How he recovers from the Folfox will be gradual. It won't be like all of the sudden, he feels great - it will happen over time. They did stop the oxyplatin a few weeks back and Scott started noticing a slight improvement after about a week. He still can't really handle cold things, but it's not as bad as it once was.


Hannah was sick last week and Scott had chemo the same day. School called while we were at G'town. We had to scramble to find some help to pick up Hannah. Thankfully, Bill Buermeyer was able to get Hannah from school and then it turned out Maya had the flu so was home with Pat. Ellen dropped Hannah off there for a while and both girls slept then Annette took both girls to Dr. Lisa late afternoon. Dr. Lisa gave both Nate and Hannah Tamiflu since they were both exposed to the flu bug via Maya even though Hannah tested negative. Then I picked her up after we got home from the hospital. It was really hard on us trying to figure out who to ask, how to ask for help and handle it all from the confines of Georgetown Hospital. When we get home from chemo -- we are both drained for different reasons and then to have to handle poor Hannah sick. It was a lot. I had to then run to Target, get the scripts filled, then feed Nate. Hannah didn't eat. Then Hannah threw up all over the couch in the family room. So I sent everyone upstairs, cleaned that up, got Hannah calmed down and in bed, got Nate ready for bed and then went to bed myself. Then, I had to stay home from work for another day because there was no way Hannah was ready to go back. She just started eating normally again last Friday. It's a lot to handle thats for sure. I am tired just blogging about it.

And yes, I got up the next morning and went to boot camp...

Scott and I are tired of this whole thing! We want it over with -- talk about an understatement! Scotty can't even enjoy most foods because of the taste change. It has obviously and literally affected every piece of our lives. For instance, before cancer, I fell asleep before Scott. No issues. Now, Scott is in bed sometimes as early as before 7 and I sometimes can't sleep in our room because he snores. If I fall asleep before he does, I am fine - after, not so fine. So even something mundane as our sleeping arrangements have changed.

How am I? I am ok. I am very emotionally tired of this whole journey. There are times when I get upset and then I have to remember, it's not his fault, it's not my fault -- it is what it is. I sleep a lot on the weekends when I get a chance. I am working out 5x a week to help not only with my overall health, but to just be able to handle the stress that is on me. So, I am ok.