Doxil the Disappointment Continued

Doxil is out and Xeloda is in - also known as 5-FU, that's right FU cancer! In my opinion, all chemotherapy drug names should have some sort of profanity incorporated in it.

Even though we were standing in the specialty Boston pharmacy last week and Xeloda was only a few feet away from us, insurance would only approve it through a mail order pharmacy; which is completely ridiculous, if you want my opinion. After a week of calling back and forth between a pharmacy in Florida and my doctor's office in Boston, the oral form of Xeloda was finally approved and should be arriving on Tuesday. Three pills of FU-Cancer are taken twice a day, twelve hours apart, 30 minutes after eating and taking compazine (an anti-nausea med.). Side effects that are associated with this chemo are the usual: nausea, diarrhea, hand/foot syndrome, skin irritation, sun sensitivity, low immunity... blah, blah, blah. The unusual thing about Xeloda is that these side effects tend to increase when taking folic acid - which I will avoid, needless to say.

I will officially start Xeloda on Wednesday 9/21 assuming it arrives on Tuesday. The entire reason for attempting the oral medication is to limit my time out of work, so as long as everything goes smoothly, I can check-in by phone with my doctor and nurse, and blood work can be taken locally. Hopefully I will not have to make another trip back into BI until my CT Scan in about six weeks or so.

Happy Fall everyone & here's to 5-FU Cancer!

Doxil the Disappointment

After two treatments of doxil, agonizing mouth sores, red, blistering, sore hands, and having to admit that my husband was right, Doxil turned out to make none of these things worth while. Tuesday's scan showed the tumor in my liver to be slightly larger than it had been two months prior, before starting the doxil.

So now what... The drug that we are trying next comes in both an IV form and an oral form. The IV form is administered over three hours once a week for three weeks with one week off. The oral form is taken at home, three pills twice a day for 14 days with one week off. Out of convenience and trying to keep a normal work schedule we are trying to get approved for the oral form of the drug, getting approved is a 50/50 chance. The prescription and request was put in today, we are expecting to find out if the oral chemo is approved on Tuesday; if not the IV form of the drug will have to be administered.

Therefore this blog entry is to be continued.....