Good News Monday

June 9, 2014 (late post from Monday)

It's been 6 weeks since I last met with my oncologist. In that time I've had 3 blood tests, been nauseous, lost almost all my hair and tried to stay positive through it all. 

Today I got news that helped give me the boost I needed going into my 3rd round of chemo tomorrow. Doc confirmed : lump feels smaller and lymph nodes feel smaller too!!! Going into chemo doc "measured" me with tape measure and lump was about 8cm. Ultrasound put it (more accurately) at 3 x 4.6 x 5.2 (cm). Better than tape measure but still grew alot from the original mammogram which put it at 3x2 cm. Today, from feeling it only, doc put it at 3x2cm. If you haven't noticed, that is the original size! (like I thought it was...) He also felt my lymph nodes and was pleased with them as well. I finally had the courage to ask how big they were going into chemo. He said they were about 2x3cm (from ultrasound) Now he thought they felt more like pea sized!

I think I got an instant grin that stayed there all day (Phil may or may not have had a matching grin!) I didn't know if I should hug him, kiss him or do a happy dance right there in that room!! 

So he's sending me for an ultrasound to get a better picture and accurate measurements. For once no dread for this test! 

I will also meet with the surgeon in the next couple of weeks. Depending on what ultrasound shows and if surgeon can get surgery time at hospital, I may only need 6 rounds of chemo instead of 8! Which would mean tomorrow would be halfway :) 

Not getting ahead of myself though. If the surgeon can't get a surgery date within a reasonable amount of time after the 6th round they will likely just stick with 8 rounds. The reason is they don't want it to grow back if there was a too much of lag in between.

The only not so great news was my "neut" count dropped again. Neutes are the infection fighting "generals" that the chemo team live and die by. If your neutes go below 1.5 they won't dose you as it can be fatal. 

Pre-chemo my neutes were at 3.9. The normal range is from 2-9. Before my 2nd chemo they dropped to 1.9. Today they were at 1.4. I thought that would mean chemo would be delayed . Doc decided since I'm tolerating it well, he will reduce the dose by 10%. He also said not everyone metabolises the chemo at the same rate. My liver may not have the time to metabolise the dose currently, hence the other reason for the 10% reduction. He said he felt quite comfortable with this, so I'm not worried. 

But I do find it frustrating that they said there isn't much I can do to "up" that number. You may have noticed I like attacking issues as they come up, head on. The words "you can't control this" is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. 

So I've decided this round to do a few things and see if they are right. Or wrong.

1. No booze. At all. This is going to suck
2. Add more veggies to my diet. I've been not as diligent about increasing this so now is the time to re-enforce
3. Make sure I"m getting enough protein and iron.
4. Exercise. Everyday. I didn't run today cause I was tired after being out all morning but I plan on going first thing before chemo tomorrow.

By the way, the nurse said the fatigue I feel in week 3 may be my body repairing itself, not counts dropping. Which also makes me more determined to give it the best fuel possible to try to at least stabilise the counts.

So was a good visit with mostly good news (well, the neut thing didn't seem to bother them as much as me)

Ready for (though dreading) round 3....