Cancer Blog #64a
By Brian Zimmerman
Begun on July 31, 2021
Email: dyingman1@yahoo.com
My Dying Words
Entry #64a– Next Medical Update
December 30, 2022
My apologies for not keeping up with this simple blog. Unfortunately, therein lies a story that I need to tell to explain what’s happened. I received my third treatment as a part of my new cycles of 2 drugs: 2 drugs (Taxol and Ramucirumab) – 1 drug (Taxol)-2 drugs (same as first two in cycle). My third treatment cycle day was December 16. I was okay at first, with no serious side effects, but then within a day or so, I developed severe diarrhea, which may be an inconvenience at first, but if it goes on, can be dangerous. It took time to get that under control. Unfortunately, the cure was worse than the disease (so to speak). The treatment to slow my bowels down (which was what was causing the diarrhea) also, for some reason, took away all bowel motion. I didn’t have any bowel movement (not even diarrhea) for 2 weeks. Again, this all sounds just inconvenient, but at that point, it became dangerous. I let the oncology office know after the first week, and they weren’t too alarmed initially. But, when I went in for my first treatment session in the last of the 3 cycle treatments before my CT status scan, the oncology NP was obviously very concerned. She added some drug I’d never heard of to my pretreatment cocktail, and reduced my Taxol chemo drug amount by 20% to reduce the bowel effect.
The good news is that my bowel function is now essentially normal (thank the Lord). The bad news is that I continue to have other side effects or troubles that are causing me problems in other ways. For one, I caught some kind of respiratory bug that I’ve heard a lot about from others, causing lots of congestion in my sinuses and chest. They finally became concerned enough because of my lung condition to put me on an antibiotic, as much for preventive effect as for treatment. I am getting better though still not over it. My neuropathy (the numbness and tingling in my fingers and toes) has worsened and so they intend to adjust my Taxol dose tomorrow (Friday, January 6) at my next treatment session.
Finally, my lethargy has worsened so that I have great difficulty staying awake whenever I sit more than 5 minutes. Further, I also have much more difficulty with thinking clearly, such as when writing or typing this blog. I’ll have to see how things go tomorrow after the treatment session. Maybe I can go back to writing a small discussion of a scriptural passage dealing with death, but I won’t know until after the treatment effects develop. Sorry for the delay and confusion. Welcome to my world. Ha! I’ll know more after tomorrow’s session.