Ready for Action

I haven't been feeling too bad the past few days. I feel a little worn down, and I definitely have a lot of aches from head to toe. But I've certainly felt worse at times.

I am hoping that the new chemo Sutent shows up today. It's due to be delivered although I don't know by what carrier. If it doesn't show up by late this afternoon I will be making a call to California to try to politely inquire about its progress. As soon as it does arrive, I will begin to take it immediately.

Sutent does have its work cut out for it: neck; both lungs; liver; kidney; hip. It has been the most popular and most successful drug used against kidney cancer in recent times though. But like all the other recent drug advances, Sutent too reaches a point where it stops working.

The biggest concern right now is, of course, the activity in the brain. There is a blood barrier between the brain and the rest of the body, and how blood passes through that barrier is still quite a mystery to medical science.

That means that there is no guarantee that the chemo Sutent will reach the brain to have any effect. And that leaves doctors with choices of only radiation or surgery to treat tumors in the brain. Both have limitations. You can only radiate the brain so many times before it's excessively damaged. Surgery can only be conducted in one area of the brain at a time. So if there are multiple tumors, they better be right next to each other or forget about it.

We're not due to meet with the radiology oncologist until Friday morning to find out all the information on my case. From my understanding, the hamster is still on the wheel. But there are some issues. Whether or not they'll be able to deal with those issues, we just won't know until Friday.

I think all the aches I have been feeling are mainly the cause of my body coming off of 19-months of constant chemo. It feels like some body mass is trying to restore itself, and that doesn't come without some growing pains.

Today I'm going to try to get in to see my family doctor so he can examine the strange bumps on my head. One is quite small, one is about the diameter of a dime, both are red, and I've never experienced anything like them. He said he could take a sample and have it looked at so we'd know what it was by the time we met with the oncologist again on Friday.

It kind of worries me 'cause he's always offering to cut a tiny piece of me off to have examined. LOL He has been an outstanding family doctor that has never left us down.

Barb and I love to hear from folks right now, it keeps our mind off all the realities we're facing. We can't thank Alyssa and Charlie enough, as well as both Moms, for keeping us active and positive and strong. Also we can't thank them enough for getting us around since I've been grounded and am not allowed to drive until the activity in the brain is rectified. THANKS!