A new round of Treatment

Medical Update

I have seen the doctor and the visiting nurse and then I had to take a nap. Now I am able to post an update of my condition.  First I have been taking a shot in my abdomen daily of a blood thinner, after 5 months of this treatment I can now stop, hurray!! Secondly I checked and they want me to have both the flu and pneumonia shot this year. I thought they would but I wanted to confirm with my drastic change in my health in the past year.  Now here is the biggest news. They are putting me on a new medication called Mitotane.  It is some pretty strong stuff, this chemical has a non-medical use, it is a pesticide, what a crazy world when we willingly poison our body to try and kill a disease! I can expect some rather tough side effects, vomiting and diarrhea, just to start with. They will also be monitoring my liver function, because that could be affected by this “medication”.  If it will shrink the tumor some and/or at least stop it from growing any more I will be very happy.  The tumor is not. with my being able to eat and I would like to keep it that way.

Now there is a change on my pain medication, they are changing how much I get each hour, from 15 ml to 22 ml per hour and if I still feel I need extra, which has gone from 4 ml to 6 ml. However, I still can take the extra medication every 5 minutes if needed.

Now how am I doing emotionally, well, I feel good that we have a plan in place I am not sure just when I will start the new treatment. First I will go into the Cancer Center for a training session and then they will give me first prescription from them. At that time they will go over all the side effects in greater detail and let me know how to handle them, what I can do for myself at home and when I will need to either call the VNA or them. Along with which one to call at which time, I really like this they did it with me back in May when we tried the chemotherapy. 

The doctor also gave me an academic paper on this treatment to read if I want to.  I told Katie my VNA nurse about it and she feels that I will understand most of it. I thought they both have given me a very nice complement. It is 8 pages long so I may only read part of it. Mainly the part about this type of treatment, is what I want to read at least for now. The doctors feel hopeful that I will respond well to this treatment if I can tolerate it. They will start me on a very low dose to see how I handle it and then move it up based on my tolerance and reaction to it. I feel very good about this approach to my care.  

  

Please feel free to ask me any questions you might have. I totally understand what all this means to my life and so does my Mom. Of course, we are not thrilled about it but at least there are still treatments out there for me to try. The day I get out of the doctor’s office after hearing that there is nothing more they can do for me is going to be real hell. But we are not there at this time.