New NUMBERS

Have some time today so I thought I would update. Jillian you asked about the interesting pain management dr. No we didn't see him again and no he isn't going to manage my pain. He didn't figure out a good schedule either.

Since I have been home I have seen Dr. Kris and Dr. Rado. There are a few new things. I will come back here for treatment after my second around of treatment in Phoenix. On Monday it will be the end of the first two weeks of Xeloda. Definitely more tired with this chemo or maybe just worn down because of the pain. I think Dr. Rado helped us figure out a good pain schedule for the drugs. It seems to be working and keeping the pain gone. Dr.Kris is giving me some new pills to help with all the swelling I have been having.

And last but not least my numbers as of Monday were 816. That is the highest they have ever been. When I was first diagnosed that number was in the 700's. So I hope this chemo does it job well.

Last update for this Trip to Pheonix

Please forgive me.... with my messy writing.... incomplete sentences... and very bad spelling. The Dr. changed my pain meds and I seem to be more tired and loopy. So I am going to try to sum up the rest of what happened this week. Ryan and I were trained on how to take care of my nephrostamy tube. We learned new things each day this week. We also meet with a very interesting man about managing my pain. I also visited the hospital here in CTCA. They had to give me some more pain meds because the pain got out of control again last night like on Monday. We stayed busy this week. Not like two weeks ago where I got to rest a little more. Oh and guess what .....last Saturday my hair started to fall out again. I little more each day. Haven had to cut it yet.

Last update for the day!

O.k. one more post for today. I saw the Dr. Malad. We are going to wait and see about the swelling. He thinks it has to do with the kidney and that the cancer in the lymph nods are causing the sever swelling and the pain. So he put me on some better pain meds. We will see how they work. I am hoping they work better than what I have been on. Tomorrow I will start Herceptin again which is an infusion once every three weeks and I have gone to a chemo therapy pill called Xeloda which I will take 3 Tabs twice a day for two weeks then off a week and repeat two weeks on one week off. I think I will be doing all that at home except this first round. That is as long as Rado is o.k. with this plan. Then I will go to CTCA Phoenix once a month or once every couple of months we will just play it by ear. Watch the CT2729 numbers.

Another update from Phoenix

I saw Dr. Smith last Monday. He is the Dr. that took out my appendix. He sent my appendix to the lab. The report came back that the reason my appendix looked so different was because it was full of cancer. He said he has never seen that before. I am not saying that never happens he just said he had never seen that before.

Sunday night Ryan and I fly out here to Phoenix again. At 7am this morning I went in for surgery. I had a Nephrostomy Tube put in my kidney It takes the fluid out of my kidney and into a bag I carry on my side. The surgery went really well. I was up within an hour.

So I will see the doctors in about an hour.

I am still having a lot of pain around the pelvic area and I am swelling really bad in funny places. So hopefully they will have some answers for me. We will also see what they are going to do about the raising tumor marker. My CA2729 was over 450.