May 24, 2010 Still Finding Things To Be Thankful For

Monday May 24 was a busy day. I started around 9 am with scans and x rays. The meeting with Dr. H. my oncologist was less than promising, and I left discouraged. As it appears now, the chemo has had nil effect.
The business of pain appears to be the constipation issues related to the pain killers used back in February for the TUR (transuretral resection) and subsequent week of the giant catheter. Since that time, until I gained an understanding of dosages of laxative required to off set the stopping characteristics of the pain medicine I was caught in a cycle to taking pain meds for abdominal pain brought on by the pain meds, not the cancer. Scans and x rays show no change. While there are no new spots or significant growth of tumor and lymph land lump lying on a main lymphatic duct are still the same size as when we started. The Doctor said he did not know what to do. The maximum chemo dosage is 4 cycles. I have done two. Nothing to do but do the maximum and see what happens was his recommendation, unless I said I just could not take it. He continues to be concerned about my lymphedema and my openness to a severe life threatening infection. With each day the chemo fails to take effect and kill the cancer in the lymph nodes and reduce the swelling I am also at much greater risk for fluid build up in other areas, in particular the chest, which could lead to heart failure. I am carefully monitoring my arms and chest. No way to tell what the tumor is doing. Continued growth there could cause at some point internal bleeding. So my situation is precarious, more so with each passing day. While I so far can accept this emotionally, my Family is not doing so well with it.
The good news is I do feel better, no matter the cause, we are proactively working with the lymphedema using every available resource and nothing has grown or appeared new.
Additionally Randy, my tumor twin and Niece’s Husband is responding well to his chemo. On top of that I can return to the gym, which I am really looking forward to. Much to be thankful for as we go into the Summer.