New treatment no. 1

Hope I've got this in early enough for most of you.

All went ahead today. Alison's neutrophils jumped from 0.96 to over 8, spurred on by the steroids that she was taking.

So far she doesn't feel as sick as she did with the previous treatment, although to me she looks more tired and her face is a little flushed and puffy (will need to keep an eye on her).

This treatment took just over an hour today and there are then pills for the next 14 days.

It wasn't all smooth sailing though today. First of all, it took three tries to get the needle into the right spot. That's on top of a needle this morning for a blood test and another one on Monday, also for a blood test.

Next, there were the ice gloves. For those who don't know, Ali doesn't have very good circulation to her hands. She's been known to have yellow fingers when it's cold. So when the nurses told her that she should wear ice gloves to minimise the side effects of the chemo, she was less than impressed.

The final bump for the day was that the nurses recommended Ali wear dark nail polish. This is because the bumps & discolouration that can occur to her nails may be accentuated by sunlight. Thus, dark nail polish may help minimise this side effect.

So, if you see Ali wandering around with no hair and dark nails, she hasn't gone goth or punk, it's just the way it is.

Chemo Delayed - Until Wednesday

Just a quick one this time (for the one person who said in the survey that the posts were 'sometimes' too long).

Alison's chemo has been delayed, probably until Wednesday. Her neutrophils were not high enough, same problem as last time chemo was delayed.

She'll have another blood test Wednesday morning and hopefully be right to start her new treatment then.

It's a major bummer but there's not much we can do about it.

New treatment starting next week

It's been a busy couple of days. After getting the results from the scan, we managed to get in touch with Alison's oncologist who was able to fit us in for an appointment during her lunch break today.

We were right that the results were disappointing and not what we were hoping for. It appears that the initial regime of chemo was not working and we now need to try a different tack.

The doctor has talked to us about how she would like to proceed and what drugs she will now give to Alison (docetaxel and capecitabine). Treatments will still be every three weeks, however there will be some differences:

• one of the drugs will by administered by IV through the hospital
• the other drug is a tablet that will need to be taken morning and night for 14 days each cycle
  
• Ali will need to take some steroid tablets on the days before, on, and after chemo
• this course should not make her feel as nauseous (although it may) which means she won't need to take as many anti-nausea drugs
  
• the tiredness may be greater
• she could experience watery eyes and dryness of her hands to the point where the skin starts to crack
• she may get pins and needles in her hands and feet
• her nails may become discoloured and uncomfortable

Unfortunately this will still wipe out Ali's white blood cells so she will be at a heightened risk of infection as with the previous chemo treatment.

So long as it works, all this doesn't really matter that much.

Looking at the big picture, this probably means that Ali is starting off on another six cycle (18 week) treatment. As before, we expect that there will be tests around the end of November, just before the fourth cycle.

If all runs to plan, she's likely to have a treatment two days before Christmas which will mean that we will probably have a fairly quiet time at home that day.

Her first cycle will probably start next Tuesday, 30 September, subject to being able to get booked in. If not, then it will be Wednesday.

CT Scan Results - Going the wrong way

Scan results are in. Sadly they don't look good from what we can tell.

The report that goes with the scan states that the lesion in Alison's liver has grown to 8cm and that they have also identified an additional lesion in her hip that we did not know about previously (6cm).

What this means as far as treatment and next steps we won't know until Monday.

Prior to the test, the oncologist advised that if it appeared that the chemo wasn't working effectively, she still had a couple of other options to try. I guess that we get to find out soon.

I'll update again when we have some more news.

Thanks for checking in.

Chemo 3: Day 16

All is going well at the moment. We're into the third week of the chemo cycle with the next treatment due on Monday.

Ali started feeling much better last week and even mentioned that it seems odd that she can feel so good with everything that's going on insider her body.

We all had a couple of days down at Mollymook last weekend which was great. The weather was a bit windy but it was still good to get down there and catch up with my parents (it was my mum's birthday ). The kids really enjoy getting to the beach, even though Harrison later complained about the sand.

We are a bit anxious today as Ali is having a CT scan to see how well the chemo is slowing down the cancer. Not too sure whether we will be able to interpret the results because it depends on how technical the report is and whether it references back to earlier scans.

Anyway, doesn't really matter whether we can read it, we're just thinking and hoping it's about time for some good news.

Chemo 3: Day 5

Things are starting to pick up from here.

Ali seems to be over the worst of the nausea and she is still tired but doesn't need to sleep all day. Although she certainly would if she could and she is far from feeling 'normal'.

She didn't have a good night sleep on Thursday but that was because of cats and possums rather than anything specifically to do with the chemotherapy. I'm still not 100% so I had been shunted off to the spare room which meant that I didn't hear any of the late night commotions and had a great night's sleep.

Big soccer gala day for Harrison this weekend, last games for this year. Annelise gets registered for Little Athletics; we'll see if that can take some of the edge off her seemingly boundless energy levels.

Take care everyone and go the Wallabies! (Harry & I are very glad we don't have to wake up in the early hours of the morning to watch Saturday night's Test match.)

Chemo 3: Day 0

Here we are again - CHEMO DAY.

Seems to come around so quickly, must be even more so for Ali.

Everything went well today.

Alison's white blood cell count was fine and she received her treatment as planned. Much better than the previous time when we had to wait a few days. Unfortunately I didn't get to go in with her today as I have been home ill since last Friday and it's not a good idea to share germs with a room full of people with depleted immune systems.

Anyway, after the treatment Ali arrived home shortly before 4pm and had the house to herself for a while as I took the kids off so Annelise could do her gymnastics. She was snoozing on the lounge when we got home with bags of toxic Maccas for the kids (even they know it's not good for them, "...but it tastes so nice" they say, where did I fail?)

Ali managed to stay up for a very tasty penne dish but was head down again by 7pm. She's nauseous tonight (not due to the dinner) and her head feels a mess. Hopefully it will improve through the night.

We have now officially made the halfway mark of the treatment.


Typically, the negative effects are supposed to get stronger as the chemo wears on. Let's just hope this doesn't happen so much in this case.

So there you have it, all the latest news. I guess it's kind of a long way of simply saying she had her medication came home and slept. (Just think, if I'd put that sentence first, there would have been no need to write the rest.)