I had a CT scan of my chest abdomen and pelvis about a week ago. My sister and I met with my Oncologist a couple days ago for all my test  results. My MUGA Scan (last Monday, see previous post) showed normal heart function. Good news! My lab results were off a little with my hemoglobin dropping by 1 gram from 2 weeks ago, down to 8.9. This partially explains my recent moderate fatigue. My other blood work was a little off but nothing to worry about.

My urinalysis showed a protein level of 100, normal is 0, (related to the Avastin I have been on). We will be following that. If it continues to be elevated, it could be a sign of kidney damage. That does concern me but there is no action that needs to be taken yet.

Regarding my CT scan, there was good news and not so good news. The good news is no new cancerous lesions. (Hurray!). The not so good news is my two pulmonary nodules in my left lung have increased in size since the August CT scan. They are smaller than when I was diagnosed with the initial CT scan last Spring (April). So, where is the De Ja Vu component in all of this? A year ago my CT scan showed 2 new pulmonary nodules. My Oncologist said it could just be the way the CT scan slices were cut, a difference in how the radiologist read it. This past Tuesday, he said the increase in size of my 2 pulmonary nodules could be how the CT scan slices were cut. Hummmm….

Our plan is to resume Doxil and Avastin in January. (I asked for December off.). My sister actually asked my Oncologist to hold off on Doxil so we could take our vacation in April. I said “no”, we would be doing chemo. (Sometimes I believe she is not really seeing the seriousness of my situation.). Sometimes, I wish I could not see it so realistically myself. There are some disadvantages to being a RN with this situation.

My blood pressure continues to stay high.  We increased my Benazepril to 40 mg daily. I had a headache when I woke up this morning and sure enough my BP was 176/105 just before taking my Benazepril.   4 hours after taking my BP med it was 159/94. My headache finally went away with a couple Tylenol. So, it is helping.

He has already mentioned another chemotherapy agent we can add if we need to, Topotecan. According to my Oncologist, that drug can adversely affect your labs (De Ja Vu: Carboplatin so that is not happy news either). I suppose I am grateful that there are some drugs we can still try. HOPE. I still have HOPE!!!