Health Update - May 2011

Dear friends and family,

This past Thursday marked 3 years since I was diagnosed with stage 4 FHC with metastases in both lungs. 3 years. I try to ignore comparative statistics as I go through this, but it’s hard not to sit here and be grateful (and a little surprised, to be honest) that 3 years later I’m as healthy, or slightly healthier, than when I was diagnosed. I’m lucky to be in such great hands at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance with Dr. Sam Whiting. Their knowledge and care makes a world of difference.

Coincidentally, this past Thursday was also the day I reviewed the results of my most recent CT scan with my oncologist. The results were excellent. My main liver tumor continues to shrink slightly, most of the lung nodules are either the same size or ever so slightly smaller, and there are no detectable new tumors! I had a scan in February, but the diagnostics department made a mistake and did it differently than they had in past (did not use injected contrast). This made it hard to compare the results to that of my previous scan, and the picture the CT scan produced was not as detailed as is needed to measure changes in tumors that are literally millimeters or centimeters. From the limited picture we had, we could see the cancer hadn’t spread to new areas and wasn’t substantially bigger. Since the CT scans I get (chest and abdomen) can have up to 500 times the radiation found in an x-ray, we took the limited picture we had as positive news and planned to hold off on doing another CT scan until the next 3-4 months, my regularly scheduled interval of CT scans. This is why I haven’t posted an entry in a while.

It is amazing to me that the chemotherapy treatment course I’ve been on for the past 9+ months continues to work as well as it is without causing horribly debilitating side effects. (My chemo course is a combination of gemcitabine (gemzar) and oxaliplatin administered through IV in a continuous cycle on Mondays 2 out of every 3 weeks.) In my last post, I wrote in detail about my side effects from the oxaliplatin. I’m happy to say that the neuropathy has not progressed as quickly as I had initially anticipated. Although the numbness in my hands and feet has gotten to the point where it’s constant, it has not affected fine motor function with my hands or balance with my feet – the two main concerns with neuropathy of this kind. I recently visited my mother in law in southwest Florida and was able to get out to the beach while I was there. Walking on fine sand with numbness in your feet is a trippy experience, and not in a good way. I don’t know how quite to explain it other than sensory overload in an area where I’m used to have sensory underload. Additional good news is that for some reason, my cold sensitivity has gone away. Ice in my glass is now welcomed and I can pick things up from the freezer with my bare hands again. Although I still have continuous ringing in my ears, the only time I have trouble hearing is in a crowded place with a lot of background noise. Not really that much to complain about or hold me back from living a normal life.

Since I’ve been on the treatment for close to a year, I have a really good idea of how my body will react to it. This predictability and consistency allows me to lead a somewhat “normal” life as I go through chemotherapy. In that regard, I’m stoked to be able to keep on the same course of treatment through the summer and to really get back into golf and do some traveling. I hope this post finds you all well and gearing up for an eventful summer of fun, sun, and positivity. Thank you for your support and prayers, I'm convinced they are making a difference.

Stay well,

Rhone