Cancer Update – Part 48

17 August 2023

You gotta love those 4 am wake ups. I have no idea why but I didn’t fight it. Coffee and breakfast at 4:30 am. I’ll probably crash sometime today but I have a 9:45 am with Dr. Burgers and a 2:30 pm with Dr. Tepper and I need to grocery shop somewhere in between.

You can get a lot done when you get out of bed at 4. I wonder if Dr. Burgers did because I was early for my appointment. They require you to be there 15 minutes before your scheduled appointment and I was there at 9:15 am. I just sat down when the nurse called me back and no more than 2 minutes later Dr. Burgers appeared, 20 minutes before my scheduled appointment.

She briefly looked over my record of fluid levels and said “Let’s get that thing out of you.” She pried the bandage off, snipped a suture with a pair of scissors and slid the tube out. I felt the snip of the suture but didn’t feel anything when the tube came out. She put a temporary bandage on it and gave me the go ahead to shower tomorrow morning. I’ll probably just put a waterproof bandaid on it before showering.

She also cleared me for my first round of new chemotherapy on the 21st. That’s a relief. I want to see how I adapt to the two drug formula as opposed to the four drug that nearly killed me. I exaggerate but not by much – considering it sent me to the emergency room, had me admitted to the hospital over night and damaged my kidneys.

The two drugs are Taxol and Herceptin. Both have a long list of side effects but the two major concerns are Taxol causes diarrhea and Herceptin leads to heart damage. Dr. Velez is giving me smaller doses than normal of Taxol to offset the diarrhea problem and I’ll undergo echocardiograms every 2-3 weeks to monitor any heart damage.

The 2:30 pm appointment with the cardiologist was quick once he came into the room. I think he must have had a serious patient in the room next to mine because I could hear parts of their conversation. He spent around 40 minutes of my schedule with the other patient. I didn’t mind. I’m retired. I play solitaire on my iPhone.

The main reason to check with him was to inform him of my infusions with Taxol and Herceptin. He said he’s only had one patient on Herceptin that had any problems whatsoever. That was news I was glad to hear. He asked about echocardiograms and I explained Holy Cross would do them but if not, I would give him a call. He wanted to see me in two months.

I did manage to get grocery shopping in today to the tune of $180. There were some things I wanted to stock up on and there are some things that Whole Foods doesn’t carry (black-eyed peas for some reason) that Publix does.

There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel with this cancer thing. I just hope it isn’t an oncoming train.

Stay tuned!