Hi everyone,
I just received a call from my doctor. My blood type is B Positive. No I don’t need any blood right now. Just thought I would post so everyone that wanted to know, now knows!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
01.14.10 Doctor Visit
Hi everyone!
I went to my Oncologist yesterday and they have increased my dose of Gleevec from 300 to 400mg per day. The side effects are the same just more of them. Lots of pain, chemo brain, having nausea, headaches etc… Same old same old!
I am thankful to still be around and to have the ability to get outpatient treatment. I’m also thankful for Jenifer. Without her my life would be pretty empty! She is always there to take care of me or listen to be complain about how I feel (which has been pretty often).
Anyway, my bone marrow team at Cedars has sent off a kit to my sister to get typed for bone marrow. My regular physician has also sent off for my blood type test. When I get the results for both I will let everyone know.
Lastly, I am holding out as long as my body will allow me to on the Gleevec. It’s getting pretty tough. If I cant take it anymore my doctors will switch me to a new chemo. Either Spyracel or some other one.
I’ll try to keep everyone posted more often!
Love you all!
Love,
Ryan
Chemo-Sabi
I went to my Oncologist yesterday and they have increased my dose of Gleevec from 300 to 400mg per day. The side effects are the same just more of them. Lots of pain, chemo brain, having nausea, headaches etc… Same old same old!
I am thankful to still be around and to have the ability to get outpatient treatment. I’m also thankful for Jenifer. Without her my life would be pretty empty! She is always there to take care of me or listen to be complain about how I feel (which has been pretty often).
Anyway, my bone marrow team at Cedars has sent off a kit to my sister to get typed for bone marrow. My regular physician has also sent off for my blood type test. When I get the results for both I will let everyone know.
Lastly, I am holding out as long as my body will allow me to on the Gleevec. It’s getting pretty tough. If I cant take it anymore my doctors will switch me to a new chemo. Either Spyracel or some other one.
I’ll try to keep everyone posted more often!
Love you all!
Love,
Ryan
Chemo-Sabi
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
What a move!
Hi everyone!
It's been a very long time since I have posted so I thought I would give everyone an update! Lots of changes have been going on.
First I relocated to Santa Maria, California for my work. We love the place and its much nicer to come home from work rather than to a hotel!
Now, to my health.... I went to Cedars to see my bone marrow specialist. They typed me for my bone marrow and sent a kit off to my sister to get tested to see if she is a match. A bone marrow transplant is a last resort. If the chemo doesn’t work then I will have to have a transplant.
Last week I finally received the results of my PCR Able test. There are two tests that track the progress of my treatment. The FISH test, and the PCR Able. The FISH is about 1/10000 in terms of sensitivity, while the PCR is 1/100000. My FISH came up positive but my PCR came up negative on the three previous tests. This obviously doesn’t make sense.
Last week I received the results from a different lab for my PCR. Normal detects 0% of the cancer cells. Mine is 126%. According to my doctors I have a lot of cancer in my body. My doctor asked that I increase my chemo from 200 mg to 300 mgs immediately. The goal being to get me up to 400 mgs a day.
As you may remember in a previous post, when I started Gleevec at 400 I was a mess. I had to go back to the hospital because of the horrible side effects.
I have been taking 300 mgs for three days now and while it isn’t as bad as the first time, the side effects are pretty challenging. I can’t keep my eyes open after 7pm at night, the pain is so remarkable I can’t even explain it. Still have nausea, and I'm tired all of the time. There are more side effects, but those are the big ones.
I see my doctor next Friday again to re-evaluate. I'm hopeful that I can tough it out on this dose and make it up to 400 mgs. If my body can’t tolerate Gleevec there are two other drugs they can try.
That’s all for now! Need to get back to work!
Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers!
Love, Ryan
"Chemo-Sabi"
It's been a very long time since I have posted so I thought I would give everyone an update! Lots of changes have been going on.
First I relocated to Santa Maria, California for my work. We love the place and its much nicer to come home from work rather than to a hotel!
Now, to my health.... I went to Cedars to see my bone marrow specialist. They typed me for my bone marrow and sent a kit off to my sister to get tested to see if she is a match. A bone marrow transplant is a last resort. If the chemo doesn’t work then I will have to have a transplant.
Last week I finally received the results of my PCR Able test. There are two tests that track the progress of my treatment. The FISH test, and the PCR Able. The FISH is about 1/10000 in terms of sensitivity, while the PCR is 1/100000. My FISH came up positive but my PCR came up negative on the three previous tests. This obviously doesn’t make sense.
Last week I received the results from a different lab for my PCR. Normal detects 0% of the cancer cells. Mine is 126%. According to my doctors I have a lot of cancer in my body. My doctor asked that I increase my chemo from 200 mg to 300 mgs immediately. The goal being to get me up to 400 mgs a day.
As you may remember in a previous post, when I started Gleevec at 400 I was a mess. I had to go back to the hospital because of the horrible side effects.
I have been taking 300 mgs for three days now and while it isn’t as bad as the first time, the side effects are pretty challenging. I can’t keep my eyes open after 7pm at night, the pain is so remarkable I can’t even explain it. Still have nausea, and I'm tired all of the time. There are more side effects, but those are the big ones.
I see my doctor next Friday again to re-evaluate. I'm hopeful that I can tough it out on this dose and make it up to 400 mgs. If my body can’t tolerate Gleevec there are two other drugs they can try.
That’s all for now! Need to get back to work!
Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers!
Love, Ryan
"Chemo-Sabi"
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