Sunday, June 21, 2009

On June 18th I went for my fifth chemotherapy treatment at Sloan-Kettering. Prior to the treatment I met with my doctor who was very pleased with the way my blood counts and liver function has been responding so far. Since this was the fifth round of chemo, they want to do some CT scans on the 24th so hopefully they will be able to get a better idea of exactly how much progress I've made. The chemo hasn't been too bad this time...I really didn't experience any side-effects except for a runny nose and I slept for pretty much the entire day on Saturday, but I really can't complain when I see how other people at the hospital are reacting to the chemo. Like I've said a few times before, the hardest part of this process is that I feel fine...I have started going to the gym every night, but it is hard being in there and having to take it easy while my inner athlete wants to push my limits. As boring as it is in New Jersey I'm starting to adjust and our new place is starting to feel like home. I'm looking for a part time job or something small just to keep me busy during the day so I don't drive myself too crazy...I'm also starting to research some of the schools around here that I might be able to commute to so this way I don't fall too far behind in my studies. Of course, being a finance major, I might want to stay in school a bit longer due to the economy...but we'll see, I'm in no rush. I'm just looking forward to Wednesday and getting these scans done so we can see how things are going. I'm not sure when we'll get the results of the scans, but I'm scheduled for my regular chemo treatment on the following Thursday July 2nd, so perhaps we'll have to wait until then to meet with my doctor. There hasn't been any news yet about the genetic testing, but my doctor believes we should find out whether or not it was successful in the next week or two so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed in hopes that they were able to isolate this genetic mutation. We did get a bid of good news this week because someone in the family (I won't mention names in case they don't want me to) had a colonoscopy done and there were growths that were found. Thankfully everything was removed and the tests showed that nothing had started to develop any sort of cancerous cells yet. Like I had mentioned earlier, screening for this sort of stuff doesn't start until you're closer to being 30 years old...this person was much younger and my doctor said it was a good thing everything was found now because a few more years would've meant someone else in the family would have to follow a similar path as mine. Hopefully I'll have some good news to write about in the next two weeks, but just remember, you have to be an advocate for your own health...If you suspect something isn't right then go see the doctor even if it ends up being nothing you will have that peace of mind. I love you all and LIVESTRONG...

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

June 3 & 4, 2009

This week was going to be busy since we had to make two trips into the city, one for a consultation with the genetics department and another for my regular treatment. The Wednesday trip to the genetics facility was relatively easy for me, but it was up to my Dad to try to remember a lot of the medical history for many of my relatives. After discussing everyone's medical history from my grandparents and their brothers and sisters to my youngest cousins, the woman we were working with made suggestions concerning who should get tested and/or colonoscopies in the near future. The field of genetics is one that is cutting edge and can offer the keys to early detection in certain types of cancers...the unfortunate part is that there is no guarantee they will be able to find the exact gene that has been mutated. That being said, the doctors will still make screening suggestions pertaining to each family member solely based on our family tree. After we had the uncertainty of this process explained to us we then went over what they do know about certain types of genetic mutations and their links to colon cancer. Basically there is an acronym for everything in medicine, so I don't remember all of the mutations and syndromes that were explained to us. I only had to have some blood drawn for the tests and we will hear the results in another two to three weeks. Hopefully they will be able to identify a specific mutation in my genes, because that would be the most help to the rest of my family. Of course any discovery of a faulty gene won't help me at all, but there is a reason for everything, my burden could possibly be the key to saving a family member's life. So far many members of my immediate family are going to get their colonoscopies done even if they aren't supposed to for a few years. A person with a family history of colon cancer is not supposed to have a colonoscopy done until they are 25-30 years old. I am 21, and it takes somewhere around ten years for a pollup to grow into cancer, and who knows how much longer to reach your liver. There's a chance this has been growing inside of me since my early teens, so it is a good thing everyone is getting themselves checked now...the last thing our family needs is another surprise like mine.

Ok, so hopefully I'll have some good news to report back in a few weeks about the genetic stuff. This brings us to Thursday June 4th which was my fourth chemo treatment. The scab that I had talked about last time had healed up pretty good and the nurses deemed it safe to give me the full dose this time. I didn't have an appointment with my doctor since I had seen her the day before at the genetics site...turns out she's probably the smartest person I've ever met because she studies genetics on the side of treating colorectal cancers. So I received the full two hours worth of chemo which was no problem at all, and they hooked up my Baxter bottle so I could take it home for the next 48 hours. I rested over the next two days and unhooked the pump with the help of Lacey (who is studying nursing so I figured it would be good practice) on Saturday. Unhooking is a very easy process that requires sanitizing everything with alcohol wipes and two injections. A syringe of saline solution and one of heparine are injected to clean the port and then prevent any blood clots from forming. After the injections, we carefully remove the tape that keeps everything in place (even shaving doesn't make this pain free). Finally the needle is removed from the port with a good tug and chemotherapy has been completed. Luckily I didn't have very many side-effects this time...only a little bit of sneezing and a runny nose, and a little fatigue, but it really was not bad at all. In another two weeks I'll go for my fifth round of chemo. After that, they should be doing all of the body scans on me to check my progress and see if there are any changes that need to be made to my treatment. Well that's about it for now, but I love you all...LIVESTRONG