Postby NHMike » Mon Sep 09, 2019 7:31 am
This is a revival of a thread from two years ago but it's always relevant. I have no improvement from neuropathy and I'm 15 months out so I expect that this will continue. I read a paper on the long-term side-effects of Oxaliplatin and Cisplatin a few days ago and it talked about medical effects and that it's an area that we don't know about but the platinum drugs have been in use for about fifteen years and there are a lot of studies on the side-effects of platinum-based drugs so the area will receive a decent amount of attention going forwards.
One of the papers said that the measured levels of platinum in blood were still strong after seven years. The thought came to me that losing blood (as in donating it) could deplete platinum levels as the body made more blood to makeup for the lost blood. I don't know that donating blood is a good idea, though, with platinum in it. I haven't looked up the guidelines on platinum chemo. In general, I do think that you can donate blood some period of time after chemo ends.
I am focusing on Yoga Balance Poses to counter the effects of the neuropathy in my toes. I do Warrior I, II, III, Tree Pose and Half-Moon Pose regularly (4-5 times a week) and have recently added a stretch similar to Side-Angle Pose. These poses help with flexibility and core strength too. I'm sure that there are other poses that help with balance but this is a core set that I do and they're easy to remember. I also do regular training to hit as many muscle groups efficiently as possible and these are deadlifts, squats, shoulder press and bench press. I like to do pullups as well because I enjoy doing them and they take very little time.
As far as chemo brain goes - I definitely felt it while under treatment. I have some cognitive loss but I can't tell if that's due to the chemo or just the normal aging process. I try to play chess regularly, debate, analyze and reason and my job is moderately math-based so I get some exercise there. I am trying to read more books as well.
So I'm fighting the downsides of platinum-based therapy with what I think helps.
Medical science does not know the long-term outcomes. We were all science experiments and our data is used to benefit the next set of patients. One of my coworkers had Breast Cancer in the 1980s or 1990s and was treated with a chemo drug that was later found to cause MS. She has MS and she can't walk now. She was in a lot of pain earlier this year but I'm chatting with her and she is doing somewhat better physically with PT but I'm not sure about her pain (I asked). But her life was extended by a few decades before symptoms started showing up.
6/17: ER rectal bleeding; Colonoscopy
7/17: 3B rectal. T3N1bM0. 5.2 4.5 4.3 cm. Lymphs: 6 x 4 mm, 8 x 6, 5 x 5
7/17-9/17: Xeloda radiation
7/5: CEA 2.7; 8/16: 1.9; 11/30: 0.6; 12/20 1.4; 1/10 1.8; 1/31 2.2; 2/28 2.6; 4/10 2.8; 5/1 2.8; 5/29 3.2; 7/13 4.5; 8/9 2.8, 2/12 1.2
MSS, KRAS G12D
10/17: 2.7 2.2 1.6 cm (-90%). Lymphs: 3 x 3 mm (-62.5%), 4 x 3 (-75%), 5 x 3 (-40%). 5.1 CM from AV
10/17: LAR, Temp Ileostomy, Path Complete Response
CapeOx (8) 12/17-6/18
7/18: Reversal, Port Removal
2/19: Clean CT