The Journey Continues

If all had gone to plan, I would have visited the oncology unit last Friday and got my infusion pump removed and then no more hospital visits until Wednesday 8th June when my next round of chemo starts.  But plans are made to be broken....

First up, last Friday morning Teresa took a call from radiology at the hospital, my oncologist has called for an urgent MRI scan, this to take place this afternoon (Monday).  Then when we came to remove the infusion pump we found that it was not yet empty, apparently one of the lines was slightly kinked, so back to the hospital on Saturday to remove it, fortunately it was well empty by then.

Overall, Friday and the weekend was not one of my better times, I felt quite ill, I suspect I have got a cold or similar virus, and I felt very tired, listless and depressed.  Yesterday I started to move around a bit more and today I am feeling a little better, except that I have very bad diarrhea - a normal consequence of chemo.  I have drugs to counter it and they appear to be mitigating the worst of it.  Other side effects of the chemo I currently have are dry mouth and throat, tingly lips and sensitivity to cold on my hands and mouth.  I continue to have real problems focussing my brain, reading is a pain, about 2 pages of a book is the most I can comprehend at once.  I understand this is commonly called chemo brain.

While at the hospital last Friday to attempt to remove the infusion pump we were told that we must not leave until the oncologist had caught up with us.  I assumed this was something to do with the urgent MRI scan.  When the oncologist arrived he was unusually positive, apparently the PET scan had confirmed the tumors in my liver and lung, and while there was a couple of other abnormalities seen in my liver, there was no additional indications of cancer in my body.  This is VERY positive, I had been prepared for additional small mets in lymph nodes or elsewhere.  The objective of the MRI scan is to quantify the other abnormalities in my liver and determine if they are likely to be mets or not.

Both Teresa and I got the opinion from the conversation that my liver surgeon is probably sharpening his scalpel at this time.

The MRI is a bit of a challenge.  The scan is scheduled to start at 2:00 PM and take up to 1.5 hours.  However I can have no food or drink 4 hours in advance and the main scan is to be followed by a second one 2 hours later.  It will be a long day.

Hopefully I will be spending some time at work this week, and really looking forward to a long weekend away in our caravan next weekend, however at this stage it is all about waiting to see what actually eventuates.