Long Day At Jeff - part 2

     It was surprising how many things caused delay yesterday.  Somehow our check in for the lab tests and then for the chemo both were messed up and so we lost time and others got ahead of us.  There's always a wait to see Littman because she gives every patient a lot of time.  Also, we had to wait a while for a chemo chair to become available.  Then our usual chemo nurse was out and we were assigned to Chris (an older woman) who was very unfriendly, didn't introduce herself, made us wait over an hour before starting the infusion, rarely spoke to us, and was the first person at Jeff we didn't like.
     As to the lab tests, my cancer marker went up again this time to 156 (last time was 100).  Littman wasn't concerned and said it often takes 3 cycles of the current chemo for the marker to start going down.  We hadn't spoken to Littman about the last CT scan and she was very impressed with the significant decline in the tumor size.  As to whether there is still any metastasizng on my liver, if I ever get to the point of resection surgery (a Whipple I believe), Yeo would do a laporoscopy right before the surgery to check out the liver.  The lab tests also showed a high glucose count, and Littman prescribed a pill.  Linda is hoping that this will help stop my losing weight from excessive urination, a diabetes sympton.  ( I may have lost up to 7 pounds but then gained back 3 or 4 pounds.)  We also spoke to Littman a lot about the HUP conference last Friday.  She was very impressed and said she had good connections with the Proton radiation group; and if I ever needed it, she could get me in.
   Littman said that her BRCA2 patient closest to me (liver metastasizing in the beginning but no evidence now) has been on a chemo vacation for about 8 months as the tumor has remained dormant.  I likely have 2 more cycles, then a CT scan, then probably 2 more cycles; so it's possible if all goes well that I could start a chemo vacaion in May.
   Littman said I will have to take my thyroid medicine as long as I am on chemo.  She also said Folfirinox, the powerful chemo I took some time ago, can sometimes prevent full bowel recovery.
   Linda liked this quote which she thought was typical of me.  She was encouraging me to put fruit on something and I responded maturely, "I don't have to put fruit on my things if I don't want to."
     Have a good day.

Elkan - Tuesday morning