A brief addendum to the last post - some of you asked "How big is that port thing anyway?". I should have included something in the picture of my old port that gave some sense of scale. See the photo to the right - it's about the size of a quarter in diameter and about a half inch tall. The new port is a little smaller in diameter, so it's a bit more of a challenge to hit it dead on with the needle.In my January 14 post, I put in a plug for the Colon Club's clever calendar - the Colondar.
http://www.colonclub.com/colondar.html
The Colondar is kind of a tongue-in-cheek way of promoting colorectal cancer awareness and highlights people who have been diagnosed before the age of 50. I first saw the Colondar hanging in the lab where I have my blood work done before each chemotherapy treatment - I have one hanging in my office. This year's models are photographed in black and white, with blue highlights (blue is the color that symbolizes colorectal cancer, as pink is associated with breast cancer).
Mr. November, Ray Beckler (at right) - is my hero - he's 50 now and has survived four episodes of cancer, and he still looks pretty good.
I confess now that perhaps my plug may have been a bit self-serving, since I was a contestant to be in the 2009 Colondar. I found out this week that I didn't make it this time, but I'm shooting for inclusion in the 2010 edition. The Colondar folks requested prospective candidates to send in a biography and a photo showing what could end up in the Colondar (of course, they have a professional photographer do a real photo shoot).
The photo I submitted is intended to look like this year's models - my daughter shot the photo in our backyard, and believe me, January is not the best time to shoot an outdoor photo with no shirt. I had some help (for which I am extremely grateful) with the color highlighting. Here is the result:
We probably shot this picture fifteen times - some were definitely not flattering, but we don't need to go into that now.It took me a few days longer to recover from my last treatment. It was the first time with the new port, which worked fine, although it was a little sore since it only got installed two days earlier. Treatment itself was uneventful, and now thirty minutes shorter since we are no longer using the Avastin. We've taken Avastin permanently out of the lineup after the TIA episode a few weeks ago. Since Avastin affects initiation of blood vessel growth that would feed tumors, it may also be affecting blood vessels elsewhere in my body, like maybe in my brain. While we couldn't really see any damaged blood vessels in my head, we're not willing to take any more chances. I hate to take one more weapon out of the fight, and I guess we'll see what happens with my marker numbers this week. The number did go back up again last time, to 14, but we only administered the Erbitux in the previous treatment (we limited the treatment at the time since I didn't have a working port, and the peripheral IV in my arms doesn't work very well). It's time for the cavalry to come riding in with a new drug.
Thursday is treatment day again, and it's Valentine's Day.
Have a Happy Valentine's Day.
