Winding Down

Today was the last of the chemo treatments with all 3 drugs.  Everything went smoothly.  No other real news since I didn’t have any scans today.

 On Monday, Dec. 15 I will have the last chemo with just the Taxol that is part of this treatment.  I will also have an MRI.

I’m feeling good and back to normal right now, but fear that soon I’ll be feeling the effects of today’s chemo.  We’re on the final stretch.  Just have to bear down a little longer.

That’s the latest!

Headaches and Other Fun Side Effects

I had an appointment with Dr. Caplan, my primary physician, yesterday evening to try to figure out the cause of my headaches, which I have been having regularly for the past few weeks in varying degrees of severity. 

 

She didn’t feel any pressure in the sinuses and thinks the headaches are in the migraine family.  There is a chance that I have had some kind of virus, maybe even some form of shingles, that triggered both the hearing loss and these headaches and that it might ultimately go away.  There is also a chance I will be dealing with migraines from now on.  I guess we wait and see.

 In the meantime, she recommended using Excedrin Migraine.  If that doesn’t work, we will try Imetrix.  And if that doesn’t work, we would move on to the hard stuff that has a barbiturate in it.

In the midst of all this, I am now developing mouth sores and my face has broken out in an angry rash.  Boy will I be glad when I’m done with this chemo treatment!

Happy Thanksgiving!

On this Thanksgiving Day, I am grateful to still be among all of you, my wonderful friends, family and supporters.

It has been four years, three months, and 7 days.

A Positive Shift in Momentum

Well, things finally seem to be settling down and starting to work back in my favor. 

Today's CAT scan of the lungs showed a reduction in both number and size of the lesions.  Hallelujah!  The new chemo treatment is working. 

Additionally, the blood panel showed everything in a normal range as well as a reduction in the tumor marker rating.

I haven't had a headache in the better part of a week.  I can hear fairly well in my right ear again.  My energy has been good. 

Now, let's hope this momentum continues to build!  :)

The Roller Coaster Ride Continues

I awoke at 4 this morning with a severe headache that wouldn’t go away.  After two hours without relief, I called Dr. Bonomi, who told me to go to Rush again today for another MRI, which turned out to be clear.  Good news.

But they still don’t seem to know why I’ve been getting headaches every morning for the past 10-12 days. They typically subside by the afternoon.  They’ve been increasing in severity with each passing day. Dr. Bonomi has me switching the steroid I am taking from prednisone to dexamethasone in hopes that that will give me relief.  I guess we wait and see.

So the roller-coaster ride continues.

Good News on the Hearing Front

I had my check-up today with the audiologist, Dr. Keri Kwarta and the ear, nose and throat doctor, Dr. Caldarelli.  My hearing has improved significantly.  The doctors say it is seldom that they see such drastic improvement occur so quickly.  The audiologist said she had maybe 5 cases of recovery like mine in her work experience. 

 Although not perfect, my word recognition performance increased from 20% to 92% in the right ear (it was at 100% in left ear both times).  Although the test on recognizing tones was still below normal for the right ear on about 3 or 4 frequencies out of 10 tested, it is still much improved over the last test across all frequencies.  (The left ear is fine on all frequencies.)

Nobody could say whether I might have even further improvement or not.  I still have tinnitus constantly in the right ear.  I will continue stepping down on the prednisone dose and should be done with it entirely after November 11.

In other health-related news, I continue to get some bloody noses and daily headaches (ENT doctor thinks headaches are triggered by cervical issue based on my description of  location of pain, but he didn’t even look at it.)

I am really excited about the improvement in my hearing.  But as usual, am not satisfied and want further improvement.  I guess I'm a perfectionist.

The Sound of Sound

Good news on the hearing front - I am happy to report that hearing is coming back to my right ear.  It still has the hissing of tinnitus most of the time and the clarity and volume of content the ear processes vary throughout the day, but I definitely have at least partial hearing in that ear.  I am about midway through my steroid treatment for this problem so I am hoping I will continue to see more progress.

I see the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor on Thursday morning and will have a follow up audiology test to see my progress.  I'll post results by Friday.

Today I had chemo for just one drug, Taxol.  Everything went smoothly. Including all the pre-medications to counteract the effects of the chemo drug, a total of about an hour and a half in the chair.

The hair is still hanging in there.  Still just losing it in little wisps when I shampoo, towel dry, blow dry or brush my hair.  I'm wondering if the steroids I'm taking for the ear issue might be slowing down the hair loss.  Whatever the reason for it, I'll take the extra weeks of having hair! :) 

Next week is my off-week - yippee!

The following Monday, November 17 will be the beginning of the third cycle (there are four all together) and will include the full chemo with all 3 drugs as well as a CAT scan for the lungs and an appointment with Dr. Bonomi.