Friends,
It’s hard not to reflect when you’re going through a life changing event. In doing so, you see things through a different lense and often can’t describe that lense very well to others. I’ve found that people far smarter than me have already done so in the past, so I decided to start this blog with a quote from someone I consider to be quite wise. Winston Churchill stated: “Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” The way I read his quote is that it’s up to each person to go out there and make things happen for themselves. I admit, sometimes it’s hard to keep this perspective as the routine of days melt into weeks and so on. What I can’t control is how well my treatment works. What I can control is how the treatment and disease affect my day. Hopefully, you can do the same.
Enough of that – how am I doing physically? The chemo is working! A scan from late last year showed that some of the tumors were shrinking a little as a result of the chemo regimen of cisplatin and gemzar, so am I continuing with that treatment and just got a fresh dose of it this past Monday. My most recent scan from last week now shows that all tumors are shrinking at varying rates. Woo hoo! While the shrinking is notable, it does not mean that I am anywhere close to cancer free or close to surgical intervention. This shrinkage is great news and hopefully it continues to work to the point where the non-primary tumors have all but been eliminated and we can focus efforts on more direct treatment to the primary tumor in the liver.
In medicine, there is always bad that comes with the good. In other words, nothing in medicine is “free” when it comes to how it reacts in your body. Cistplatin has heavy metal (platinum) in it that can be bad for tumors and unfortunately, kidneys and the smaller nerves in the body (the tips of your fingers and toes, and your inner ear). This will present itself as numbness and tingling in your fingers & toes, or negative changes in your hearing. I am not feeling any numbness or tingling at this point, but I do have some instances where I can hear a high pitched monotone sound. This is known as tinnitus. It depends on the person whether the tinnitus will go away after cisplatin is stopped or if it will become something a person just has to live with. For me, as long as the drug works and I can hear, I’ll keep on with it until the doc says I have to stop.
A friend suggested I try acupuncture as a preventative treatment for the side effects of the cisplatin. After doing some cursory research, I concluded there was no downside to acupuncture and therefore, why not shoot for the upside if you’ll be no worse off?! Acupuncture is something I’d never done before simply because I never had a need for it. Needles don’t bother me at all, but I will say that I had to close my eyes when Dr. Wang (acupuncturist) stuck a needle in my head for the first time. There is no pain when the needles go in our out – you definitely feel them though. Remember, pain is felt by the mind not the body and if you freak yourself out into thinking it will hurt then it probably will. If nothing else, the sessions are super relaxing. I lay on a bed in a semi dark room for an hour listening to soothing Chinese music with a heat lamp on my feet and about 8-12 needles stuck in seemingly random places on my arms, legs, and head. I assure you, my acupuncturist, whom I affectionately refer to as the Wangster (Dr. Wang) behind his back, has a purpose for each needle placement. After 3 appointments thus far, the jury’s still out on whether or not it’s “working” since I started having some of the tinnitus before I started acupuncture.
My next scan has yet to be scheduled but it will probably be sometime in late May or early June. I hope to continue to the current regimen until then, assuming the tinnitus doesn’t progress – I’ll post a new blog if something changes. In the meantime, stay well.
Rhone
No comments:
Post a Comment