Tuesday, February 21, 2012

BEP Round 3 Day 22

LAST DAY OF ROUND 3

As some of you might notice I am at Day #22 of this round, which normally ends after 21 days.  However my blood work was bad last week and as you know I had to skip a week and get a transfusion so my body could recover enough to get this final dose of Bleo.

Well some good news, my CBC numbers all came up.  My white blood cell count is in the normal range, and my red blood cell count and HGB are up nicely.  Still low but up from 6.2 to 10.2 for HGB for example.  I can tell you, its a WORLD of difference between the 6s and the 10s for hemoglobin.  Before all this chemo fun started (which seems like so long ago...) my HGB was in the 16-17 range so I am not back to that level of nice oxygen transfer but it is nice to feel somewhat normal as long as I dont' stress my body out too much.

Now for the even better news, my tumor markers from last friday came back.  My HCG was already <1 last time and it remained <1.  But more importantly (or just as importantly I guess) my AFP came down from 27 which it was at the start of this Round 3 fun, down to 7.2!!! So, finally I am in the  normal range for all my markers! This is a huge win in my book, though I know I have more of this journey left its a great milestone.

I have my CT/PET next week, and a follow up with my Oncologist.  I am hoping for <1cm and no activity, so we shall see.  My big concern now is that  from this point on it isn't a straight line in the NCCN guidelines and Indiana and Sloan don't agree 100% on the path forward so its time for decisions.  I really really don't want to do the RPLND because its a major surgery with major risks and a huge scar and possible bad side effects.  However, I don't want to make a bad decision.. go on surveillance and then 2 years from now after I have battled a horrible re-occurrence and I am facing even worse issues I regret that "If I had only done the RPLND, maybe none of this would have happened."  Its a huge decision and honestly I don't know what I am going to do, for now I am just focusing on hoping for a great CT/PET and I will deal with the decisions about moving forward in a week or two.  From what I have read they like to do the RPLND a bit after the last chemo, cause my insides are sticky jelly right now from the chemo, so it will give me some time to think at least.

I did take a last day picture but honestly, I don't feel like this is a Victory just yet. It was a bright and hopeful day with some great test results and I am going to leave it at that.  As you can tell by me posting this at after 4am in the morning I am not exactly savoring the victory :-P

1 comment:

  1. It's okay to have doubts about future decisions. I'm sure you and Jenn will make the right ones. You two just need some recovery time right now. You are very intelligent and well read on the topic. On a side note...It was WONDERFUL to spend time with you last week. I love you very much.

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