March 24, 2009 Trifecta

Quite a day today, three doctor visits and chemo and radiation.

The day started with a visit with my oncologist, Dr. Obenchain. This was probably the biggest visit of the three because I would get new results for the blood that was taken Friday. This one was different from most in that it would also look at what was going on with the cancer cells. Not sure why they need five vials of blood, but once they poke the hole, what’s the difference?

Needless to say, the results were probably a little better than even I expected. Since Julia had been out of town for over a week, I had to be my only policeman as far as what I ate. I really took a different approach and I have now dropped the term “splurge” from my vocabulary.

When I would splurge on Sunday night, I really hadn’t been doing things that were out of the diet. When I would have extra salt, I still made sure that I still kept it under 2000 mg. When I had pizza, I limited how much I had to keep the tomato and milk input low enough. I found that we were probably being a little too limited on what I was eating. In fact, there were probably some days where I did not hit the lower limit on how much sodium that I needed to have. As a result, I took a little more liberal interpretation of the rules we were following. I would still stay within the guidelines but a little closer (ok, guardian angel, a lot closer) to the upper limits.

As a result, I was a little concerned that I might have gone with the devil too much and the little angel was going to get me back. I was thrilled to find that Dr. Obenchain had highlighted a number of items on the blood work-up and they were all good. My creatinine was down to 2.3. This is a huge drop of 0.4 in ten days. I have now dropped from 3.8 with a goal of 1.0. A normal person has a creatinine level of 0.8 to 1.5 so I am getting close. This is the best indicator of how my kidneys are functioning. I’ve gone from 10% to probably somewhere near 40% functionality.

The rest of the labs were also pretty good with all of the items (sodium, calcium, phosphate and potassium) that were dangerously out of line all ok. The other biggie was the indicator of cancer cells. This was the first time that this was run. All indicators are showing the number of cancer cells is down. It isn’t as dead on as a bone marrow biopsy would be, but I’m not in any hurry to do another one of those. So things look great.

I then went to chemo. It was pretty easy as usual. I’m off Doxil for the time being because of the radiation. As a result, I’m just taking Velcade, which is the easier of the two, but probably the one that is doing all of the work. Got to see Jerri and Sammi, of course, and that always brightens up my day.

Immediately left the hospital and went up to Scottsdale to see the nephrologist. Couldn’t wait for this meeting. After he saw the test results, he was smiling ear to ear. Dr. Hogan is a straight shooter and what comes from his mouth is the truth and not sugar coated. I really like the guy. He said that the improvement that I am showing is fantastic. This 0.4 jump was huge. A 0.4 jump when I was at 3.8 would not have been considered big, but one from 2.7 to 2.3 is.

It took me about 30 seconds to ask the most important question that I could think of. It wasn’t, “Does this mean that my kidneys are getting back to normal?” Or “Does it look like the chemo is doing its job?” No, it was, “Can I have salsa for lunch?” He smiled and said, “Yes.”

I splurged with salsa and a burro at lunch, my first real Mexican in two months. Darn, I used that word again.

It was then off to radiation and the last doctor visit. The radiation is pretty quick and now that I have discovered a way to keep my privates private, it’s going great. Four down, 21 to go.

We then met with Dr. Chan, the radiologist. He was extremely happy with the results that I am seeing so far. I don’t even limp anymore. Not sure why this is going to take 21 more visits, but he’s the boss.

Finally on the way home and an opportunity to get a little rest so I can actually show my face at work tomorrow.