You guys, the last few weeks have been ROUGH! Despite the glorious pictures I posted from Hawaii, I was actually having a tough time. CPT 11 has kept me in near constant nausea which is no fun in itself, but the 6 hour flight to Hawaii set off my back spasms. I was okay for the first day, but then they started to get worse. So the nausea and back pain sadly affected my trip. I did however get in an amazing spa appointment and some great girl bonding time with Andrea & Colleen. And while I was in the ocean my back felt incredible, so I really enjoyed the perfect, turquoise, warm waves.
The flight back was pretty bad. Colleen took amazing care of me, but I threw up early in the flight and then was in bad pain the rest of the time. Colleen had thought ahead and arranged for a wheelchair to greet us at the gate in Seattle. As embarrassing as that was, I was so grateful for it as there was no way I could walk all the way to the taxi after the flight.
10 days later, I’m still in pretty bad pain which is way longer than my back spasms have ever lasted. Another issue is my cancer count (CA 2729) has shot up to 500 (from 350), so that tells us good ole CPT 11 isn’t really working. Brian and I went in yesterday to talk to my oncologist. She decided to switch me to yet another chemo (my 10th). This chemo is called Gemzar and comes with fewer side affects (hopefully, hopefully less nausea). And no hair loss, which makes me happy. She also gave me two more anti-nausea meds to try. My liver is a tiny bit compromised at this point from all the tumors, so that could be causing some of the nausea too. I went to the treatment center and received anti-nausea meds, pain meds and anti-inflammatory meds to hopefully help with my back. I felt better yesterday, but I’m back to bad back pain today. If it still continues next week I’ll probably go in for a MRI to see what’s going on in my back. At this point I even wonder if its a vertebra fracture from the cancer in my back. We’ll see….
I’m feeling pretty frustrated at this point and a little scared that we just can’t find a chemo that is getting to this cancer. I haven’t lost hope, but every chemo that we go through means that we’re running out of options to try. We’re heading down to meet with Dr. Slamon in LA (the big research doctor) to see if he has any other opinions or trials. Honestly at this point I just need ONE break.
But I have Halloween to look forward to which is Desmond’s very favorite holiday. And I’m sure we’ll get my back pain figured out so that won’t last much longer. And maybe Gemzar is the chemo that will finally work (it does have a pretty cool name). And I can always close my eyes and picture the warm, healing Hawaiian waters and believe that better times are ahead.