Round Two Chemo-Therapy

The rollercoaster just went down a very steep hill and at the moment I am spinning near the bottom.  But I hope that in a day or two I will get my head around what was said today and feel like the coaster is climbing up another hill.

Now I believe all of you knew about the tumor on my left adrenal gland, however, did I make it clear at the beginning of this that a few lymph nodes at the base of my neck on the left side had been biopsied and found to be cancerous? Well, now that group of lymph nodes seems to have about doubled and grown in size has well. So no rest we are going to keep right on treating this aggressive cancer. That is a great thing.  What has me blown is that the doctors say that with this next treatment, I might go from having 24 months to 28 months of life left. Somehow saying 2 years sounded longer! Isn’t that goofy.

So here is the next treatment plan. I will go into the hospital and have a “port” put in. This will be done has same day surgery (asap), I will go home just hours after the procedure is completed. Then as soon as they can fit me into the schedule I will start chemo-therapy. I will have therapy for three days. Then I will be off for three weeks. I will then go back in for another three days and so on until I have had six treatments. Now when I say go in I will not be hospitalized. The Chemo will be done at the cancer center on an outpatient basis. This should take about 4 months.

The Chemo that they are going to give me is NOT the most common one used for this form of cancer. They feel that it is just too tough for me to handle. So the one they are going to do uses two different drugs. I didn’t catch the names of the drugs, they would not have meant much to me. But let’s call the two drugs; drugs A, & drug B, and the two together drug C.  When I go in on day one I will get just drug A, on day two I will just get drug B, then on the third day I will get drug C. I am not positive of the order and it doesn’t really matter to me.

Now one of the great things is that each time I go in for chemo they will reassess how much if any success we have had and how I am tolerating the treatment. Adjustment will be made if it is believed it will be in my best interest. If, however, it is not doing me any good at all, then treatment will end! I like that, if it is not working why get sicker for nothing.

I was also told that by my second round of treatment I will most likely get a script for a free wig because my hair will have started falling out.  So watch out for the bald crazy Suzie coming your way soon!!!  (LOL)