Lovin' my STD

I know, who would have thought I'd be enjoying my STD so much!  I mean, Short Term Disability has really helped me out!  What?!?  What were y'all thinking I meant?  Anyway, I'm thankful to have short term disability because it's making for a nice transition into my "Disability Retirement."  I've been bombarded with paperwork and unfortunately it takes awhile applying for this and that (something you can't do until you officially stop working).  So with my chemo treatments, Drs appointments and dealing with all of this... I feel like I'm still working.   And by the way, I'm not quite sure I like the way Disability Retirement sounds. From here on out we'll just call it Retirement.  Disability Retirement makes it sound like I have a terminal, incurable disease... Oh... Wait...   (Cue the chirping crickets!  Seriously, these crickets need to be on standby at all times!).

So a quick recap on what's been going on with my treatment... My tumor marker has been steadily declining which is great news.  A couple of weeks ago it took a turn and started to go up, but thankfully that didn't last long and it's heading back down in the right direction.  When I started this cocktail my CA27-29 tumor marker was at 462 and as of this week it's down to 96.8. Woohoo!  We're back in the double digits.  Dr. Hellerstedt is trying to get a PET scheduled in the next couple of weeks so we'll have something to compare to the last PET scan I had. I'll keep you posted when I find out more.

Until then, my lab work has been pretty low (WBC, RBC, etc).  I was able to get one of my drugs on Monday, but because my WBC was so low, I was given a WBC booster shot on Mon and Tues and I was back in the infusion room Wed to get the remaining three drugs.  We're also monitoring my hemoglobin which has been low.  There's a chance I'll need a blood transfusion, but I'm waiting till Dr H says I absolutely need it.

Since my schedule has been flipped around and upside down this week, I'm grateful I don't have the stress and pressure of trying to make it into work.   So yes, you could say that I'm loving my STD... Paving the road to a stress free, relaxing Retirement!

(Thanks Baby B for inspiring me to make this blog entry)

Anticlimactic

Going into my PET scan this week I just knew we were going to be getting some ass kickin' results.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case and the lesions are looking worse than my last PET.  And you know what, this is the first time that this has happened and I'm completely okay with it.

Okay, I know I'm getting some head scratches, confused and puzzled faces and a few "what the hell"s from some of you.  So let me explain...

We're comparing this PET scan with my last PET scan and my last PET scan just so happened to be in July.  Let the record reflect that I've changed chemo cocktails 4 times since then.  4 TIMES!!  Obviously 3 of those cocktails were big flops with me... so you can imagine the lesions getting more and more pissed.  It wasn't until I started this Carbo/Gemzar cocktail that 1. I started feeling better  2. My tumor marker started to go down and 3. We started to see improvements on my CT scans.  Ideally it would have been nice to have a PET right before or at the time I started this new cocktail, but unfortunately insurance doesn't approve PET scans as often as CT scans.  And just as a reminder, PET scans measure cancer activity and CT scans measure the actual size of the lesions.  So there's really no way to compare this weeks PET scan with my last CT.  It would be like comparing apples to oranges.  

So yes, if I had a PET scan in November, we would have been seeing some ass kickin' results.  Dr. H is confident that we're making progress on my current cocktail so we'll keep on truckin' and I'll continue to 1. Feel better  2. See my tumor marker go down and 3. See improvement on future CT AND PET scans.  

Talk about being anticlimactic!  Oh well, I'm back in the infusion room tomorrow.  Whoa wait a second.  What is today?!?  Okay, I'm back in the infusion room on Monday.  Sorry, that's not chemo brain, that's retired brain!  Ha ha!  So even though the results weren't ass kickin', I just know this new cocktail is kickin' some cancer ass!!