Cycle 4: Medical Update

Today I had a Cycle 4 visit with my doctor. Everything is looking pretty good! She was very pleased with how everything feels internally – “like normal!” she said. (I assume that means ‘normal, considering that a bunch of pieces have been removed.’) My CA-125 – the blood marker for gynecological cancers - is holding steady at 17, well within the normal range. My INR (the blood-clotting thing) is staying well above 2, as it should, so I’ll continue on the current dose of Coumadin (15 mg three times a week, 12.5mg the other four days, which feels like a LOT, considering we started at 2.5mg ….)

As for blood counts, the neutrophils (= infection fighters) are still up, and the red blood cells (= oxygen ferries) are still down. The latter explains the increasing fatigue I am feeling. This is all perfectly consistent with my treatment, and my doc assures me the fatigue will continue to get worse. However, everyone on my team sounds very pleased that I am continuing to walk as much as possible. Indeed, they seem to have joined me in using it as a metric for how well or bad I am feeling and doing.

I did want to get the answer to a question I hear frequently: “Was cancer found in nearby lymph nodes?” People are pretty savvy these days, and they know that cancer can spread through the lymphatic system, and that if it is detected in nearby (‘sentinel’) nodes it has the potential to spread elsewhere in the body. The answer in my case: we don’t know, because they weren't sampled during surgery. The reason? My cancer had already spread pretty extensively throughout the pelvis and abdomen. There was no need to assess potential metastasis because actual metastasis was already evident.

On the very important matter of hair loss: the doc agrees with the chemo nurse that I’ve probably lost all (or almost all) the hair I’m going to lose, and probably won’t reach the billiard ball stage. So it’s quite possible I’ll make it through this without needing to resort to hats and scarves. Glad I didn’t invest in a wig! And yes, I’ll try to post a picture soon.