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#24 – Catching Up

So I know it’s been a while between blogs, but overall I’ve been fairly well. Round 11 of chemo knocked me quite a bit and even though it’s a slightly lower dose, I ended up being sick the 3 nights I was on chemo 🤢 Round 12 – the end of this particular chemo dose – was better than round 11 but not by much. It did make it easier to deal with by having my bestie Kristy come down to visit for a few days. We did pilates, had facials, went out for Teppanyaki and just chilled together. It was the best!

Over the last few weeks my cancer markers have gone from 4.3 to 2.4 to 2.1! There was a lovely reading of 0.8 but that particular blood test was done at a different pathology and the lab results can differ. Either way, I’m happy with them being under 5 and hopefully staying that way! Although, markers aren’t the main focus. If I get them down to 0 it doesn’t automatically mean I’m cancer free, it could just mean the cancer tumors are really tiny. My oncologist seems to think I’ll be on ‘Maintenance Chemo’ for the rest of my life, however, I plan to prove her wrong. It’s bloody tough going through chemo with no end date in sight and I certainly don’t want to be doing this forever. The last few weeks I’ve started to struggle with everything. It’s been 8 months since I was diagnosed and while this is the perfect time to be making the most of life, it’s also really draining. Since my hands have got worse with neuropathy (numbness/tingling) I also feel really dependent on everyone, especially Anthony. I can’t do up buttons, open jars or containers and even lifting up the lid to the toilet is difficult. My hands are just so sensitive, red and peeling ☹ AND I WANT IT TO BE OVER!!!

I have had another PET scan and a CT scan also, to see the liver clearer. We asked for a referral to see a Liver Surgeon and the CT scans will be better for him to look at. So, my oncologist said my most recent PET scan results were “fantastic!” which was great to hear as she had warned us previously that the results might have plateaued. We met with the surgeon – Dr Ben Thompson – who said my results with chemo have been great so far but there are still tumors in all 8 segments of my liver, meaning at this stage surgery still isn’t an option. We were fine hearing this as we had been told from the start that my liver was inoperable. So it wasn’t anything different to what we already knew. That being said, he was extremely knowledgeable and gave us a lot of information to think about in terms of other potential options. He also said something to us that makes a lot of sense – chemo is clearly working so why would we stop that for a surgery that’s not guaranteed to be successful. Fair enough.

Chemo round 13 was the start of Maintenance Chemo. This consists of a 30min infusion of Bevacizumab and a take home 46hr Baxter pump (Fluorouracil). I got through chemo day really well this time and we turned it into another date day by going to Timezone and the movies!