Summertime and the living is easy- a nice stretch of early summer heat we've had around here the past few days, sweet. And a good win by the Bruins last night to start off the Eastern Conference finals...
I had another CT scan a couple of weeks ago and received the results last week- about as expected. There were no new tumors on my liver, and no spread to any other organs; the existing tumors had increased in size, indicating some increased progression, or at least increased activity. Relatively speaking this was/is ok, as I am 2+ years into this now, and I had been off of any treatment for about a month and a half at that time. Being off of treatment wasn't bad, as my red counts and energy levels rose again; I've had some of the best runs and workouts I'd had since January. Still not where they should be, where I want them to be, but getting back there. I resume treatment tomorrow. We had planned/hoped to have me participate in a clinical trial being run through BIDMC as my next option but from what I understand the parameters of the trial had changed and I was/am currently ineligible. What my oncologist recommended as my next option instead was revisiting my initial treatment regimen (FOLFOX) and adding bevacizumab (try saying that three times fast) to it.
FOLFOX is an approximately 4.5 hour infusion process at the clinic, followed by a 46 hour infusion administered via a take-home pump (looks like I'm carrying around a rather unattractive purse for two days) which then gets disconnected. Treatment will be every other week. I had tolerated FOLFOX quite well previously, the worst side effects being some neuropathy in my fingertips and toes, and a six-day or so sensitivity immediately following treatment to anything cold; makes touching, eating, or drinking anything cold uncomfortable until the effect wears off (no cold beer dammit. Am I going to have to drink wine for a week??) I haven't been given bevacizumab before- as with any treatment there are potential side effects but hopefully they will be as mild/I will tolerate them as well as others previously.
Hopefully this will be effective in knocking back, or at least stabilizing, things again for awhile.
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