Doc & Cap treatment no. 1: Day +5

Long weekend is over but the school holidays live on.

It seemed to be such a busy weekend, even with three days. Alison is still recovering, she is feeling off colour but not housebound. A side-effect appears to be tenderness and swelling in her mouth and down her throat. This is quite uncomfortable and makes it difficult to eat some foods. I'll be nagging her to follow up with the doc if it doesn't go away or get better soon.

Other than the tenderness, a general mild nausea and a continuing feeling of tiredness, Ali seems to be getting through this treatment. At least she feels well enough to get out to the shops on the odd occasion (I wish there was a way to stop that one!) and potters around the house well enough.

Kids are doing well. They had a great time down the coast last week and were pretty well exhausted when they got home. That lasted until they woke up the next morning and then life was back to normal. One more week before they start their final term for the year. The last term for Harry before he's off to a different school next year.

As for me, I'm well, although it was a very stressful day yesterday when Manly and Melbourne played in the NRL Grand Final. I'm not a huge fan of the rugby league but I usually really enjoy watching the State of Origins and Grand Final each year.

It almost goes without saying that I'm quite happy to support anyone who is playing against Manly but I was quite lost yesterday. Instead of wanting either one of them to win, it was more a case of not being able to really support either team. Still, I watched most of the game and after a month on the wagon, it was good just to sit down with a beer, relax and watch the footy.

Anyway - back to work tomorrow.

Doc & Cap treatment no. 1: Day +1

Seemed to be a fairly good day for Ali today. She managed to sleep in until about 8:30am after a fair night's sleep.

She was up during the day and managed to get out of the house. A couple of hours lie down and rest was all she needed.

Her tummy feels a bit funny and she is weary but she's looking pretty good when all things are taken into perspective.

So far, these drugs don't appear to make her feel as bad as the previous treatment regime. Then again, she will be taking her pills for 14 days so it's possible that things will drag out longer this time. Just have to wait and see.

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.