Some of you may know or remember the words from the musical ANNIE. Even though I'm not an orphan in NYC in the 30's, sometimes I can relate to the words in the song It's a Hard Knock Life. I went down to La Jolla last Monday for my 6 month CT Scan. This was to determine the status of my remaining nodes located in my abdomen. If they were gone, or had not shrunk since the last CT I would stop treatment. If the nodes had shrunk and all my other numbers looked good, I would continue the treatment. On Tuesday morning I saw the doctor and the word was that the nodes had shrunk about 25%, all my blood numbers were good, so I continued on with Round 7. Because there is no scheduled CT scan, I will also do Round 8 in November.
I guess this is good news bad news. The bad news is that I have to continue with the treatments, the good news is that I am still responding to the treatment and having no major side effects or issues. Of course I had hoped to be done, but I would rather receive the full benefit from the treatment than stop early. This round was a little longer than usual because I had a CT on Monday, 10 hour treatment on Tuesday, 2 hours treatment on Wednesday, and then I had to stick around on Thursday because I had an EKG and Echocardiogram on Thursday afternoon. I think it was the longest time that we had spent down for the Trial. We did get to get out and see a couple of movies and go to a couple of nice dinners (tried Roppongi, Kevin), so it made the time go by a little quicker.
There is no clear decision on how long this treatment will last. In the beginning I thought I could have no more than 8 rounds, but in re-reading the information packet I see where it can continue until the doctor decides I should stop. I will have to talk to Dr. Kipps in November and try to figure out what he thinks my path will be. I have given up on picking a stopping date, as I have been wrong (and a bit disappointed) in the past. I feel pretty good after this round of treatment, so that is a plus. We are off to Seattle on Friday to visit family, so I am taking advantage of how I feel to take a small trip.
On November 13th it will mark 3 years since I saw Dr. Kipps for the first time (he welcomed me by putting me in the hospital). In the past 3 years I have certainly been on a roller coaster of medical ups and downs and a variety of treatments. I know that I am going in the right direction and in the words of that famous philosopher Annie,
The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're always
A day
A way!
Tomorrow,
Terry
1 comment:
There's lots of good news in this post, although I know you would like all this over with. Love the Annie song! We have rain waiting for you in Seattle - see you very soon. Love, your sister.
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