Postby NHMike » Mon May 14, 2018 10:31 am
Caat55 wrote:NHMike wrote:Neuropathy peaked yesterday.
The other symptoms picked up a bit. This is really late to realize it but I think that the steroids help to suppress some of the other symptoms besides the nausea. Cold sensitivity hit me today (it was in the 40s and overcast). I wore my gloves, winter coat, three shirts and Balaclava to grocery shopping this morning.
While shopping, I had my eye on a bottle of wine that I like, some discounted cold desserts, and raspberry swirl ice cream. Can't eat any of it for at least a week and I'm waiting for a month after the reversal before drinking alcohol.
One thought just struck me: will I have to give myself another month of blood-thinner shots? My knees are already pincushions.
My oncologist and I discussed the reversal last week. My last round ends the end of June. He suggested I hold off on the reversal until at least September, pharmacist from insurance recommended something similar. Both said to give the chemo time to full get out of system, allow body some recovery time before taking on yet another challenge. He suggested an email to surgeon apprising him of where I am in the process, see what needs to be done from his prospective,
Susan
I think that the recommended time between the end of neo-adjuvant to surgery is 6-8 weeks but I've seen some research that think that pushing it out may give the radiation more time to work. The time between for me was 7 weeks. I have the feeling that the surgeon is ready to go when I am and probably is thinking four weeks. I think that the surgery is far simpler (surgeon estimated an hour vs 5 hours for the LAR). The difference is the Oxaliplatin though - I don't know how long that takes to clear out of the system. The Xeloda cleared out for me pretty quickly. I felt back to normal two weeks after radiation/chemo.
Part of the complication is in the seams. I went locally for radiation and chemo for convenience but am tempted to go with Dana Farber as I think that they have better facilities for MRI and other testing and scanning. My surgeon is there (well, next door) and the Oncologist would be a specialist; not a generalist. My current oncologist (trained at Dana Farber) is one of two at my local hospital and he's quite busy. Dana Farber is not convenient for me but my mother lives in the area and it would give me more opportunities to visit.
Mass General would be more convenient as it's off of Commuter Rail and my son works there but I'd have to find a doctor and get them acquainted with my case and I don't know that I'm up to doing that.
I will probably send the oncologist at Dana Farber a note asking him what he thinks. It might result in a visit or not. This is a reminder to me of how our medical systems can be disjoint across specialties.
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