Round Eight: A bit different

After the recent rounds of tests, I’m waiting on a surgical consult again. It’s possible they may recommend chemo+radiation, which would be a continuous low dose of 5-FU (part of my current regime), to further shrink my tumors prior to surgery. Since surgery is sounding likely, my oncologist decided to take me off the oxaliplatin this time, since that’s the liver-harming component of this poison cocktail. If I’m likely to have liver surgery, we need to start with it as healthy as possible. I still got the full dose of 5-FU this time, and am on the pump for another hour. My appointment with the surgeon is at the end of the month, right before my next round of chemo is scheduled.

The 5-FU only dose is much less exhausting than the full FOLFOX treatment. I’m getting more work done, and napping less. Even my food problems are reduced. (I had a whole bagel for breakfast!) Best of all, the oxaliplatin is the one that causes the cold sensitivity: I can drink tap water! And eat ice cream! (Well, I don’t actually want ice cream just now, but in a couple days I probably will, and I’ll actually be able to eat it.)

So it looks like, having settled into a routine, it’s time to break it. I don’t want radiation or surgery, of course, but I want this shit OUT OF MY BODY, even if it originated from my body. Surgery to reduce the tumor load will make chemo more effective, and the radiation will kill off more cells. DIE DIE DIE!

And they are: over the past month my CEA has dropped from 871 to 270. The chemo is working well, and adding in the other technologies will work even better. Science! Science works.