Tuesday, October 4, 2011

day 18 of Delayed Maintenance...

Let me first say, that it is nice to have my ghost writer back (mom)! As some of you may know, she was trying to secure a 50K Grant and has poured her heart and extra hours into getting votes for it. She is now in the "wait and see" stage. The final answer will come on October 23rd. So thanks to all of you for waiting on this update.

Here is the readers digest version of the last weeks. I did ended up getting my final dose of chemo for the Delayed Intensification I and then it did take a long time for my counts to recover before starting Delayed Maintenance. Basically what happened is the Study Guru's had to have a meeting and make a decision as to my best care. The PEG that caused all of the problems in August also played with my platelet count and it took over 3 weeks for my platelets to get to the level required in order to start this phase. 

The decision was made to stop the use of this PEG chemotherapy drug which is a part of the study because my doctor and the Guru's want to keep my liver as healthy as possible for my future and the possibility of needing a Bone Marrow Transplant. My protocol called for 4 more doses of this PEG chemo and it is known for irritating the liver and causing the trouble that I had, which we now know was a pretty serious reaction. There is good and bad about losing the use of this study drug. The bad is that it is one less drug/bullet to fight the cancer which may or may not change to course of my treatment success and the good is, that as my brother Kent said, we dodged a bullet and the chance of this drug causing a even more serious and long term effect on my liver. So the way I see it is "it is what it is" and God IS STILL IN CONTROL!

My platelets just didn't seem to want to bounce back and took their own time to recover from a low of 19 on September 6th. Mom and the nurses were kidding with me and saying to turn the switch back on and to quit messing around Ü so I did. On the Sept. 8th they were 41and on Sept. 15th - 81. I was finally ready to start on this phase of treatment and this schedule is every about every 10 days, each dose increasing in strength but I do NOT have to go back for any appointments in between treatments. Woot ! Woot! 

So, I have been enjoying playing pool and am now playing on 2 different teams and have been playing in tournaments in local cities and over all am feeling pretty good. I have to admit not having to go to COH as often, has been like a breath of fresh air. 

Here are my counts as of September 27th...
WBC: 2.8
RBC: 2.99
ANC: 1.3
Hemoglobin: 10.8
Platelets: 164


Again, thanks to all of you who continue to pray for me and my family. Until next time and much sooner that 6 weeks, blessings...

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