Hi friends! It's been a wild but yet boring couple of months.
I completed rounds 4 and 5 of my chemo and immunotherapy. Both were a bit easier than previous rounds, which I attribute to the lower dose of Taxotere.
I went 4 weeks before round 4, to give myself more time to gain weight. But then for round 5 I was surprised that I felt ready to go again after just 3 weeks! Seemed like such a win.
I guess I had forgotten about the Chinese farmer ๐
Treatment day came around and we were ready. My parents had come into town to help out with Daphne, I had fasted for 36 hours, we had the $200 worth of dry ice for the cold capping, we were ready!
We got to the treatment center and did the routine bloodwork prior to treatment, and my platelets were too low to treat! ๐ก I didn't even know to worry about that! Now looking back at my earlier results I see that my platelets were always borderline, but I was not aware of that until now.
So we had to push out another week and just wait for them to come back up. They told me there was nothing I could do but wait. I was so bummed. But we did immediately go to get a giant breakfast sandwich that tasted like heaven after my long useless fast.
The next Friday I came in for bloodwork again to see if my platelets had come up enough to treat on Monday. They were at 65 and needed to be at 100 or more.
Drumroll.....I only got to 85! ๐ญ I couldn't believe it. The PA said we had to push out ANOTHER week. I was so upset.
But as with everything in this process, I took a deep breath and looked for other options.
I asked if we could test again on Monday, and treat on Tuesday if they came up enough over the weekend. They agreed to try that!
Monday came around and are you ready for this number? I got to 98. ๐
It felt like a joke. But the PA had told me if we got close enough we could go for it, so after a bit more waiting, he confirmed that we were good to go.
So we did the 5th round of chemo on Tuesday June 10th. It was a roller coaster getting there but it felt really good to complete my second to last round.
Restaging test update
After round 3 I got a new set of staging tests to see whether the treatment was working as planned and whether we needed to make any changes.
The overall results were that things are going as planned! My tumors have shrunk significantly, and blood counts are all where they should be for this stage of the process.
My MRI showed progress on every tumor and even areas that were just "of concern" on the previous scan. I asked my integrative oncologist how I was doing compared to other patients at this point in the process and he said better than 50%. He also said that he was really encouraged by the progress and I should be too. That made me happy!
I will get new tests again after round 6, which will then tell me what I can do for surgery.
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Choices I made and things I learned at this stage |
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1) Instead of waiting another week for my platelets to come up, I asked to retest a couple of days later. It worked in my favor! They didn't present this option to me, and they don't always say yes to what I ask, but it's ALWAYS worth asking.
2) I thought I was in control of how long I went between treatments, but I learned that I have less control than I think. Its hard because you have to retain agency and vigilance throughout this process, but there are many things that are out of your control. Its a very hard balancing act.
3) My oncologist told me there was nothing I could do to get my platelets up but wait, but the naturopath on my team already had me on a supplement that helps with platelets. Unfortunately I hadn't been consistent with it, but I am now! It really seemed to help get them up fast, and I hope it will continue to help.
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With love and gratitude,
Elizabeth
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