This week was an Erbitux-alone week, and with a late afternoon appointment, a long day in the big green chair (shown in the picture). There are at least 30 rooms in the treatment center at the Swedish Cancer Institute - some are private rooms, others are more open and separated by curtains. I haven't been to all of them yet, but my favorite rooms are the ones that have the wide open view of the Seattle skyline. All of them have the same green naugahyde reclining chair - not a bad piece of furniture, but one that I will be glad not to see in the future. Also pictured is my IV pump and "tree" with a selection of the drug of the day hanging in the bags. On an Erbitux-alone day, I'll only have two bags on the tree. On the alternating weeks, I get the full-meal-deal and receive a combination of 5 drugs and several additional drugs to mediate the side effects of the cancer-fighting drugs and may have as many as 5 bags hanging on the tree at one time with a tangle of tubing that ultimateky ends up in my "port". I usually bring my laptop computer in with me to try to keep up with emails and some ideas to write up in this blog. I constructively fill up the 4-5 hours I spend in the big green chair, but I do fall asleep sometimes too. The full-meal deal days usually occupy an entire day from 9:00 until 5:00, with travel to and from Seattle, lab tests, visits with the oncologist, treatment, and the waiting time between each process. The Erbitux-alone days are a little bit shorter because there is only one drug to administer, but they still have to observe me for an hour after I receive it to make sure that I don't have an anaphylactic reaction.
I wrote in an earlier post that the Erbitux had given me a rash. The rash let up for a few days, but came back with a vengeance on Monday and by Friday (fueled by another dose of Erbitux on Thursday), I was a walking set of angry red welts that impressed my oncology nurse. Before, the welts were just ugly - now they itch like a million chiggers and hurt like I'm being stung by an entire hive of bees. I am surviving on the entire line of Benadryl products on the market (tablets, ointments, gels, sprays), over-the-counter analgesics, and a host of moisturizing lotions. I think that the welts are starting to let up a little and I may be able to coast into the next treatment on Thursday before starting over again. If I keep getting the response that I got from the first two treatments, maybe this will be a short term inconvenience. I keep reminding myself that if I look this bad on the outside, it must be hell on the tumors on the inside.
This has been a week of good news for some of my friends. One had a confirmation that a tumor found a few weeks ago was not cancerous - a great relief to friends and family. Three other friends who through a combination of surgeries or chemotherapy, are looking at the possibility of either being cancer-free, or with no remaining live tumors. This is great news that I hope will keep repeating itself.
March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness month. For more information, including a picture of the Super Colon - a 20 foot long by 8 foot high inflatable colon that you can walk through (this an odd educational exhibit that only Zippy the Pinhead can fully appreciate, in my humble opinion), follow the link to: http://www.preventcancer.org/colorectal/.
I wrote in an earlier post that the Erbitux had given me a rash. The rash let up for a few days, but came back with a vengeance on Monday and by Friday (fueled by another dose of Erbitux on Thursday), I was a walking set of angry red welts that impressed my oncology nurse. Before, the welts were just ugly - now they itch like a million chiggers and hurt like I'm being stung by an entire hive of bees. I am surviving on the entire line of Benadryl products on the market (tablets, ointments, gels, sprays), over-the-counter analgesics, and a host of moisturizing lotions. I think that the welts are starting to let up a little and I may be able to coast into the next treatment on Thursday before starting over again. If I keep getting the response that I got from the first two treatments, maybe this will be a short term inconvenience. I keep reminding myself that if I look this bad on the outside, it must be hell on the tumors on the inside.
This has been a week of good news for some of my friends. One had a confirmation that a tumor found a few weeks ago was not cancerous - a great relief to friends and family. Three other friends who through a combination of surgeries or chemotherapy, are looking at the possibility of either being cancer-free, or with no remaining live tumors. This is great news that I hope will keep repeating itself.
March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness month. For more information, including a picture of the Super Colon - a 20 foot long by 8 foot high inflatable colon that you can walk through (this an odd educational exhibit that only Zippy the Pinhead can fully appreciate, in my humble opinion), follow the link to: http://www.preventcancer.org/colorectal/.
