Treatment Plan

Yesterdays appointment, Finally, gave us a plan of action! It has been decided that at this time it is not worth while for me to receive radiation. The team of doctors are Very suspicious that the spots in the liver are cancer and do not want me to under-go radiation unnecessarily, so Chemotherapy it is.

Day 1 of chemo will be on Thursday May 7th @ 8:45am. This first day is estimated to last 5-6 hours and will be the concoction of Cisplatin and VP-16.
8:45am-Blood Work
9:30am-Dr. Huberman
10:00am- Chemo begins
Day 2 of chemo will be on Friday, May 8th @ 4pm, and is estimated at 1.5 to 2 hrs of VP-16 only.
Day 3 of chemo will be on Saturday, May 9th @ 9am and again will be about 1.5-2hrs of VP-16.

-wash, rinse and repeat-

Approximately two weeks after the treatment I will be brought in for blood work, to make sure everything looks normal. ie: white blood cells and kidney functions

Following the blood work I will do another round of chemo beginning on 5/28 (as of now that is the date) that will consist of the same treatment above (assuming I handled that concoction well the first time)

For all of you googlers out there:

The cocktail (nothing like a margarita unfortunately)
I will be receiving an IV cocktail of Cisplatin (aka: Platinol) and Etoposide (VP-16).
Although the odds of the cancer having spread are very high, we chose the more aggressive of the chemo drugs nonetheless. I don't want some pansy drug that's going to lightly touch on any cancer in my body, I want a drug that will kick the crap out of it even if that means I'll be throwing up a bit more and some additional side effects (we'll chat later about this). I do have various prescriptions for anti-nausea, steroids, and anti-anxiety to counter act the craziness that the steroids will cause.

The Scripts:
- Ondansetron (zofran) - anti-nausea that works on a neurological level, but will only work for 3 consecutive days before the brain catches on to its trickiness. This is to be taken only if the pre-vomitting meds don't work.

- Prochlorperazine Edisylate (compazine) - anti-nausea to take at first onset of queasiness, 4-6 hrs as needed

- Aprepitant (Emend) - Anti-nausea to be taken the night of chemo treatment, a larger dose the first day, and smaller doses days 2 and 3

-Dexamethasone - Steroids, to be taken twice a day for 4 days along with the Emend (see above)

-Lorazepam (ativan) - a calming agent, mostly to counteract the steroids, not a sleeping aid, but will help me relax and might make me drowsy.

-Hair Prosthesis (wig) - should I go blond?!? (probably not, but you can bet I'll try on every color just for the fun of it)

Side Effects from chemo-cocktail:
-Hair loss (again!), will begin 14-21 days after first day of treatment. Hair will begin to grow back a few months after treatment has stopped. (this will not go as well for me, before my face was way thinner, i could pull off the short hair thing!)
-Nausea
-Fatigue
-Low white blood count (will be tested), causes low immunity. If I get a fever over 100 degrees, cough, chills, bleeding, bruising. I need to go in for antibiotics
-Mouth Sores, treatment of home made rinse. Call doc if they become severe.
-Redness in and around mouth (boy this should be pretty), yeah no treatment for this
-Possible damage to nerves (numbness, tingling, weakness, pain, hearing loss)
- Possible Kidney damage (will check levels via blood count)
-Possible allergic reaction to the chemo (then we will have to change the components of the cocktail)
-*other side effects may occur, call your doctor, blah blah blah...*

Do you all feel totally in tune with my life and my body now? haha.
Above is a whole lot of technical information. Probably more than anyone needs to know, but in case you did there it is; meaning that I don't have to go through it all verbally (hooray for the Internet!).

Assuming (hoping) nothing pops up before then, I won't be posting for a few weeks; seeing this is for cancer updates only, if you want to know about the rest of my (not so) adventurous life, you're just going to have to actually talk to or email me. :o)

I tried to figure out how to trigger an email to my "followers" (kinda creepy title) every time I post, but I don't think it's an option - sorry.