Cancer Blog #92
By Brian Zimmerman
Begun on July 31, 2021
Email: dyingman1@yahoo.com
My Dying Words
Entry #92– Medical Update
September 29, 2023
Medical Update: Finished another treatment on Wednesday (September 27), and effects were very similar to the last treatment: nausea, dizziness, hoarseness, and some bowel issues. I forgot to take the Zyprexa (the new antinausea med they started me on last time). So, of course, Thursday, I had moderate nausea (which in my book is pretty miserable) and dizziness. I took half a tablet on Thursday night and slept better and am less nauseated today (Friday, September 29, 2023). The Zofran really did little if anything, though eating crystallized or candied ginger cubes (which are actual cubes of ginger soaked in sugar.) seemed to help slightly. The gummy I took might also have helped somewhat. My labs looked good for the most part: platelets and WBC (white blood cells that fight infections) are normal. My hemoglobin (red stuff in red blood cells that carries oxygen) is a concern. It was 11.6 g/dl this time, whereas the time before it was 13.2, on 08/30 it was 12.1, on 08/16 it was 12.6. He’s thinking my bone marrow is starting to give up so that I eventually will become anemic (with accompanying shortness of breath and chronic fatigue (worse than now)). I’m not sure he’s correct as I’ve mentioned before. My historical review of my hemoglobin shows that I’ve had test results that were similar in the past. For instance, on 01/06, it was 11.7, and on 01/13 it was 11.6. So, maybe it’s just the normal bouncing around. It’s hard to say without more results. So, things are okay, though I still am weaker and have less stamina than I did several months ago.
Just a note speculating on the future: The oncologist has said a number of times recently that they’ve “given me a ton of chemo drugs in the past two years.” And, he mentioned maybe cutting me back to once every three weeks. I think what’s going to happen is that I’ll get one more treatment on October 18th (taking a week off for our 50th anniversary!), then he’ll order another status CT scan, and if it shows my cancer is pretty stable, we’ll go to the once every 3 weeks schedule with the hope I feel better and the cancer remains dormant. There’s nothing much we can do differently. What we can and will do is what we’ve done since the beginning: pray for God’s mercy. Where would any of us be without that?