Some more updates

I had a PET/CT a week ago now. I haven't seen Dr. Kasamon yet about it (and other things) but I did get an email where he mentioned that it was again perfect, which is excellent news. I also had a renal ultrasound which showed my kidneys are performing perfectly after my stent was removed.

I saw my dentist again and he fixed a filling that I had cracked. A day after that another one cracked. That's three this year. I am very unlucky. Today I had my teeth cleaned and x-rayed, and there were not any other cavities which is certainly welcome news.

Next week I have an office appointment with Dr. Kasamon and I've having another colonoscopy with Dr. Jani. Not really looking forward to the colonoscopy, but it will be first super thorough inspection of things since the surgery. It's actually to identify the source of some GI bleeding I've been having which is highly likely to just be some internal hemorrhoids. Avastin can cause that to happen in some people. Hopefully he finds them and I get a clean bill of health from that one.

I do not like Xeloda. I'm going to go back to the IV 5-FU. Yeah, it sucks having the pump for 2 days. I also didn't like the side effects of the anti-nausea and steroid, but I think I can get those waived as well and just treat nausea as needed. It sucks way more not being able to use your hands to really do much of anything for 2/3 weeks and not being able to walk straight because your feet hurt. That sucks a lot more. I have pictures of my peeling hands that maybe I'll put up one of these days. I tried it at least. It was more convenient in some respects, but all in all seems to be the less good option for me. At least with the IV I have basically no side effects at all and am good to go once I get disconnected.

How exactly I'm going to live with this in the long term is an interesting question. I'm eventually going to have to start working full weeks again, and the IV is going to be annoying. I'll just have to go into work with the pump with me and probably work some time on Saturdays now and again. Sucks. Oh well. The textbook treatment scenario is that I continue taking 5-FU and Avastin indefinitely. Well, for most people that means at most a couple of years (then they die). If indeed I am still a paragon of not having cancer in a couple of years, I think I'm going to give some push back as to whether I really need to be taking this stuff all the time. No doctor is going to take me off of it because they don't want to be responsible should it come back. Since I am such a statistical outlier anyway though, nobody really has any idea what I should do. I think after I've put with this for a while I'd be willing to roll the dice and see if it comes back. If it does, oh well, I'll go through treatment again. If not, great.

Emily and I were planning to go to a demolition derby last weekend, but it was rained out. This weekend we're going to see Thievery Corporation in concert. Hopefully that is fun!

It's almost an afterthought to me, but tomorrow is also my birthday. Emily has bought me some presents, so I get to open things too!