Well, here I sit and figured I should do some writing. Been a busy day so far, up and out by 6:00am to volunteer to do traffic control for the Running from Cancer event today. Had to be at Tecumseh Arena parking lot by 6:30am to get my t-shirt, safety vest and intersection assignment. Wasn't sure the t-shirt thing was going to work out, biggest they had was a Large! However I managed to squeeze into it, barely! I got a great corner to work, Manning and Riverside, which is a three way corner bordered by Lake St.Clair/Tecumseh Riverfront Park and Lakewood Golf course. Could not have been a better day for the event and participation appeared to be high. At my intersection I only got to see the half marathon and 10k runners.I was back home by 10:15, then tidied up the apartment and my laundry is currently in the dryer. Brenda is on a one week getaway with her mom and a bunch of other family members. They are up at Deep Bay Lodge, on the (Top Lake) portion of Wahwashkesh Lake up north. So yes, I'm home alone unsupervised! To tell the truth, I was already wondering what I was going to do with myself by Saturday afternoon! Thank goodness for this event today, and now my brother Jamie coming over with some movies to watch.
But first, I must go back to Friday afternoon in order to bring you all up to date on the latest with me. While sitting here Friday afternoon, the phone rings, caller ID says WRCC., which is Windsor Regional Cancer Center, I figured it was the radiation dept. calling to cancel or change my appointment with my radiation oncologist. How wrong I was. It was my medical oncologist (chemo Dr.) on the phone. Let me point out that usually when one of my oncologists calls, it's usually one of the nurses passing on information or messages on not the Dr.'s themselves. This was the Dr. and when the Dr. calls usually it's not great news.
Dr. Kanjeekal was calling to inform me that she had just heard back from the Hamilton group. As I mention a few posts ago, she had sent a copy of my history up to them to review and get their opinion to see if a mini allogenic stem cell transplant would be feasible for me. Having read that particular post on here, you would also know that I was not in favor of doing ANY kind of transplant at all. The Dr. however felt it best we cover all my options and thus sent my case to them.
Having heard back from the Hamilton group she was now calling me with the details of their opinion as to a mini transplant. There opinion at this stage of things is that I would not benefit from a mini transplant, and that even the toxicity of it would most likely cause more bad than good. So in a nut shell, there it is, one more option off the table and thus my options get narrowed further. Like I said though, I was not in favor of it anyway, so now that I don't have to travel to Hamilton to hear them out had they been in favor of it, I can narrow my homework to just a couple of options at the moment. ABVD or ICE.
I myself am leaning toward ICE. ABVD contains the "red devil" Adriamycin which back in 2007 I was told I had had my lifetime dose of. Hearing now that after the Dr. checks the records and does a muga scan she may be able to give me a "little" more, makes me nervous. Just an example of what can happen is in this excerpt from Chemocare.com :
"A serious but uncommon side effect of adriamycin can be interference with the pumping action of the heart. You can receive only up to a certain amount of adriamycin during your lifetime. This "lifetime maximum dose" may be lower if you have heart disease risk factors such as radiation to the chest, advancing age, and use of other heart-toxic drugs. Your doctor will check your heart function before you may take any adriamycin and will monitor your heart closely during your treatment. Dose-related heart problems can occur as late as 7 or 8 years after treatments have ended." Now I don't know about 7-8 years down the road, but should I go there, I don't want to be put down by heart related issues due to chemo! After what I've got invested in this fight, uh uh, no way!
So I will have to take some serious time to think the option of ABVD over if that is what the best option is. ICE I am still reading up on. More quality of life issues to think about. Boy never in a million years did I ever think I would be doing what I'm doing now. This is some crazy stuff, which you fellow patient know only too well. However we do our research, talk with the Dr's and we move forward with what ever it is we need to do to live.
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| Brenda's injuries from the boat incident | that she sent me. |
Love & Hugs,
Tim.
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