Just completed day four of five of my new chemo drug, Topotecan. This is the first time I have had to get chemo five days in a row, off two weeks, then five days again. It has definitely affected my lifestyle - have had to go in an hour earlier to school each day during treatment to make up for the hour early that I leave school in the afternoon in order to get to the Shaw Clinic in time to get finished before they close at 5 P.M. It has also necessitated finding someone to cover part of my last class each day - not really long enough to warrant getting a "sub", so different people have stepped in to help me out this week. I don't know that I can ask them to continue to do that. I'll have to make other arrangements. The good news is that so far my body has tolerated the drug well with no adverse side effects, for which I am truly grateful! The plan is to have another treatment followed by a CT scan a few weeks later to determine how effective this drug is. At that time we will assess what other options might be available. I would hope to schedule a consultation visit at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale or at MD Anderson in Houston in the near future to see what they recommend in trying to keep the cancer at bay, keep it from spreading, and maintain a long-term maintenance treatment that would afford me a normal lifestyle for as long as possible. I feel certain if there was a "magic bullet" to shrink the tumors dramatically, we would know about it.
I trust that I am getting very good care here, but it never hurts to get another opinion. Thank you for your prayers and continued support and interest in how I am doing. It means so much to all of us. You can pray for Bob's speedy recovery as well - he just had hernia surgery today but seems to be ahead of the curve again. Will keep you posted as new info worth sharing comes up.