Third Cycle almost done
Hi everyone…
Just came back from Perth Friday arvo after completing Cycle 3 of the Lutetium-177 Study and my followup scans. Back to Perth tomorrow for the last scan of this cycle. Everything went quite well, although all four of us made the mistake of not taking the Temizepam (sedative) because we wanted to be alert enough to watch the opening day India-Australia Cricket test at the WACA (Western Australia Cricket Association). Turned out the broadcast was blacked out locally until 4:00pm so we ended up watching the Australian Tennis Open. Not a good decision me thinks. For the first time I was hit really hard with nausea about 20 second into the infusion, but they kept it a bay with tropisetron. Next time I will stick strickly to the protocol!!
Monday, after the density scan we met with Prof. Turner to review my case. December’s MRI of the chest showed no tumour activity and my lungs were declared essential free of any abnormalities. We did discover I have vascular disease in both my lower legs, but this is not related at all to the carcinoid, but more likely my smoking from age 18 to 44 (I quit in 1985). Something we will have to be a little careful of in the future. Because of some anomolies in the topography of my liver post-surgery, they have found it a little difficult to measure my liver tumors. There is a new MRI protocol that will be much more accurate in the future and may eliminate the need for the Octreotide scans post treatment. However, since we started with the scans we need to keep going with them.
Anyway, except for the nausea, which lasted about a minute, the infusion went fine and eventually we got out of the hospital 4:00 pmish.
the followup scans on Thursday and Friday were uneventful except I twigged my shoulder Thursday night and so had some pain killers Friday before the scan. Thanks to that I had a bit of a foggy day Friday afternoon and Leonie had to drive all the way home.
After Friday’s scan, Leonie and I met with Prof. Turner to review these latest scans as well as comparisons to the earlier ones. The scans confirmed that there is no activity in the chest or plural cavity, confirming the results of the MRI. The overall tumour load has not progressed since July and if anything may have decreased slightly (this is generally confirmed by the followup blood tests which show my CgA count dropping.
I would generally say this treatment cycle was a little more difficult than the previous ones which I think was caused by a) not taking the Temizepam on the treatment day, and b) having the morphine shot before the scans on Friday. This left me feeling fuzzy on Friday and a bit lethargic and flu-ish on Saturday. This morning (Sunday) I feel fine and I am looking forward to a more active day! In fact I will be going into work shortly for the morning.
Keep well everyone, be positive in everything you do, but mostly about yourself!
Eric