Goodbye Old Nemesis, Hello New One

Today is my last day of the chemotherapy pill Nexavar. Tomorrow morning I start the new chemotherapy Torisel.

I have been on Nexavar for over a year. Nexavar required me to take two doses per day, 12-hours apart. I could not eat for two-hours prior to taking the pills, or one-hour after. I figured the best course was to take pills at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m., so I could at least preserve a decent dinner hour.

There is a little good in everything. Tomorrow will be the first morning in more than a year that Barb won't have to set the alarm for 5 a.m.

Tomorrow I will be able to eat if I want to at four in the afternoon, uh huh, if I want to, I can, for the first time in more than a year.

But then again, Torisel may make me so sick to my stomach that I can't eat a thing, or go to sleep. Chemo can be funny, affecting everyone a little differently in its own way. But I'm feeling positive.

The Kidney Cancer Association operates a forum for patients to talk with one another. There was a pretty good conversation on the forum between a few folks who made the switch to Torisel. Most reported feeling much better than when they were on Nexavar, ate better, and gained weight. So I've got my fingers crossed.

I had to take the FJ out this morning to get stuck by the needle for more bloodwork. It was ordered "fasting" so I was motivated to get it done so I could have breakfast.

I only had to jump on a great back road and travel a few miles to get to the Lancaster General Hospital satellite office. Cool morning temperatures, sun rising over one-foot high cornfields, passing chicken farms, music turned up loud, open roads, it was a great morning for a little drive through the Pennsylvania country side.

Barb and I will be staying busy around the home and office today, riding out the last day on Nexavar, and readying for the first day on Torisel. Wish us luck!