A Good Meeting w/Dr. I

So I met w/Dr. I this afternoon. While I continue to feel a bit better each day, I've had a few concerns that I wanted to discuss w/him because the last thing I want is for something to happen that would cause me to have to delay my vacation. My primary concern was that I've still been having fevers at night - they don't get that high but they're to the point where I would have to get them checked out at urgent care. Dr. I said that it is not umcommon for people to have this kind of reaction to radiation and that he's confident that the fevers should go away over the next week or so. My feeling is that it is possibly a wbc count issue as well, given my history. Today my wbc count came in at 2500 which is decent but still in the range where my temperature fluctuates. He broke down the blood cell counts even further and the number of disease fighting cells is quite good and the number of new cells that will develop into wbc's is high - Dr. I sees these as very positive signs and expects I will feel much better over the next week. My red blood cell count is quite good too, despite the fact that I no longer take iron - he says this is a very good indication that the tumor has reduced a lot more. We're both hoping for total elimination, of course, but I'll take what I get. Another problem I've been having is that I feel nauseas and don't really find anything appealing to eat - each meal is a bit of a struggle to force myself to ingest enough to keep from losing weight. Dr. I says this is pretty standard and not to be concerned about it - it should also go away in the next week or 10 days. Finally, I've been having trouble sleeping - part of this has to do w/the fatigue (which, ironically, makes it difficult to sleep) and part of it has to do w/the fevers - Dr. I has recommended that I take tylenol before going to bed which should take care of the fever issue. In fact, last night I took some tylenol and had a great sleep so I was happy that he was cool w/it. Fatigue is still a problem but as I do more, it gets better incrementally - once I start getting some good night's sleep it should improve even quicker. I just gotta keep moving :) My hair seems to be coming back w/a vengence. My facial hair had gotten a lot thinner and lighter (almost the color of my skin, so you could barely see it) - the other day I woke up and, to my amazement, once again had a visible goatee (well, van-dyke for those of you who have been following this blog). The hair on my head is also coming back much thicker - it's been just over a week since I had it shaved and it's already pretty fuzzy all over. Still not quite normal thickness but getting there.

Dr. I and I also discussed the schedule for the next portion of my treatment. I will be returning from vacation on 1/14 so here's the overall plan:

Week
------
1/15 tests - cat scan, pet scan, endoscopy
1/22 consult w/Dr. I and Dr. B (the surgeon) based on the tests
1/29 surgery

I have tentatively scheduled the dates for the tests and the consult w/Dr. I and Dr. B and will publish those once they've been confirmed. The actual date of the surgery won't be set until the consult the week of 1/22 but will be for the following week.

So I won't have any evaluations before leaving for FL - would like to have had some indication of progress but it makes the most sense to have the tests done as close to the surgery as possible. For now, it's time to relax and forget MSKCC for the next several weeks (Dr. I's orders :).

cheers,

--Dr. D

... And Then There Were None ...

Had my last radiation treatment today. Yehaw! Afterwards I met w/the Dr covering for Dr. M along w/the nurse I've been seeing since treatment began. All in all, I've dealt w/ the side effects of the radiation pretty well so there wasn't much to discuss. They also performed some blood work on me to check wbc count etc - I haven't got the results yet but if there were any problems they would have contacted me. Didn't sleep well last nite, think I was too excited about the last treatment, so I ended up staying home rather than going to work today. I'll play it by ear tomorrow depending on how I feel but I expect I'll go in for a while anyway.

--Dr. D