Carboplatin - Ya Want Some?

Man, I think I have seen more of OLOL Hospital than I have of my own home. Yesterday’s surgery went well. I don’t like waking up from anesthesia. You see, the problem is, you can fake sleep for a little while in there, but once they see you’ve woken up they keep talking to you and saying your name over and over again so that you wake up fighting mad ready to hit someone. As you can tell I don’t remember waking up at all after my surgery, and actually I really only have one memory of the first two days, maybe a few more than that. One was the nurse telling my dad they would keep me sedated, another one was getting asked the second night if I wanted a sleeping pill (the correct answer was yes, even though I didn’t sleep well) and the other was getting a washcloth put on my head. That’s it, nothing more. So, I have a bandage on my arm connected to the vac and a bandage on my leg. My leg definitely hurt badly yesterday after the surgery – I had the nurse pumping me full of drugs in recovery – but I’m much better today, pain wise.

I’m still having stomach problems, I think my stomach is not digesting the food I’m on very well, and the dietician thinks the same, but she has to try and get us a new type of food through Apria, so we don’t know when that will happen. So for now, I’m back on that wretched pump doing continuous feeds at a lower rate. Hopefully this will settle down the nausea (I barfed twice today, once at 5, right after Warner told me not to aspirate and left the room, and again at noon). So, I need to get healthy before radiation starts.

We went and saw Mell today for my swallow test, and Warner got to watch (I did not) and he said it was pretty cool. Basically I ate applesauce dipped in barium, drank some sort of liquid with barium in it, and ate some crackers with the barium on them. I was successful with everything but the crackers, man those little buggers are tough to swallow with half a tongue! They tasted good though! Again she was amazed that I can not fully swallow without anything in my mouth, but once you put something in there, like water, I’m a swallowing fool. It just goes to show you that I was meant to eat food through my mouth!

We have decided that I will be getting weekly chemo treatments along with the radiation. They are really low doses and should not cause any of the serious side effects (hair loss, nausea, a low, low chance of infertility etc…) He said because of the radiation there shouldn’t be any other side effects that I would notice that I wasn’t already experiencing. The drug is carboplatin, and since I’m getting it every week, it’s a small dose. Basically enough to sensitize the cancer cells (it doesn’t sensitize the other cells, we asked) to the radiation, in hopes to be done with cancer once and for all. So, I will do that on Mondays. When we first met my oncologist, Dr. Bienvenue, he said he had heard ALL about me and now he was finally getting to meet me! See, I told you I was famous - watch out the paparazzi is going to be swarming our apartment soon! So, I’m having the whole shebang thrown at me for this - surgery, radiation, and chemo. Good thing I like my doctors so far!

The verdict is still out on the Amifostine to save my spit. First, we don’t know yet if insurance will cover it, and second it causes severe nausea and vomiting and most people can’t handle it or have allergic reactions (plus it only works 15% of the time in people who can handle it). We asked Dr. Bienvenue what he thought about doing the chemo if he were me and he said absolutely he would but when we asked him about the Amifostine he said there was no way he would take it because he said “that stuff is toxic.” So, I haven’t made up my mind. Saliva after radiation would be nice, but at what cost. I’m already nauseous and throwing up now, so how much worse will it be later?

Saturday I managed to mosey out to Luling for the night and to get a hair cut. My hair is no longer in my face! Maybe when I can wash it again – who knows when because of my leg, I’ll post a picture!

So, Monday starts radiation and chemo, and I don’t think you guys are thinking fat enough for me! I was 160 today at the oncologist and yesterday before my surgery I was 163!!! (Never mind the fact that I didn’t eat much because of my surgery yesterday and I was sick today).

Oh, for anyone who is concerned, no I'm not depressed. I'm nervous and anxious about getting treatment started but that's about it - I just want to know what to expect. I'm really tired most of the time also so I hang out in bed. Plus it's really hard to move around connected to everything and I'm so over watching television!