Two More to Go

Tomorrow, I start cycle 16. That and cycle 17, and I will be done with chemo. There's still the radiation afterwards, but that will be a 10 day course, versus a yearlong ordeal. The last two cycles are both irinotecan and temozolomide. One change: this coming cycle, I am not taking the suprax antibiotic. Its function is to kill intestinal bacteria that could contribute to irinotecan diarrhea. However, since it can also create an intestinal environment in which C diff can thrive, there's the risk of that kind of diarrhea... And since it happened to me during cycles 13 and 14, we're trying to see if not taking it this time will keep the C diff at bay. But there's now an increased risk of irinotecan diarrhea, so hopefully that doesn't get me.

I had another round of scans last week, a PET scan and a chest CT, as usual. The results, in the words of Dr. Meyers, were the best we could hope for. The best news is that this one noticeable lung spot that we've been following, that was thought to have shrunk at one point, is looking more and more like it is innocuous. It has not really changed in size since the beginning. "A confluence of vessels," was what the interpreting radiologist said on the report. So hopefully it is innocuous. In other news, there was no mention of the smaller spots I'd mentioned before on the report. Either they might not have been flagged this time, or they've disappeared, in which case they could have been tumors. That's why I'm getting the radiation -- if there were tumors in my lungs, it's best to give them some extra treatment to ensure nothing comes back.

Next round of scans won't happen until 6 weeks after my last radiation dose, to avoid false positives showing up on a PET scan. That would put them in late March, assuming no further delays. Getting closer and closer to being done and going home!