Back on that bumpy road

We should get Dr. Scott to play poker with us.  He's an easy read.  Of course, I am too so leave me out of the game and we can split the winnings later.  So I pretty much knew it was going to be bad news from the moment he walked in.  He tends to lead with his good news so his silent poking and prodding and questions about changes in bowel habits lead up to the expected, "So my news is not so good".  He handed me the report but went right to the spoiler before I had a chance to read a sentence.

There are a whole bunch of new little spots in the liver.  They are all "sub-centimeter" but they are consistent with metastatic cancer.  The visuals were backed up by a huge spike in the tumor marker blood test. These little suckers are growing and they've found a comfortable medium in my liver; fortunately no where else. I still have no physical symptoms of pain or digestive problems.

We went over and looked at the scan together and started moving through the CT scan layers, counting them and got up to about 6 or seven and that was enough for me.

Dr. Scott had a couple of ideas.  He felt that chemotherapy had the most likely chance of success... a weed killer spray approach as opposed to a weed pulling approach.  This made sense to me. There's no telling how many "seeds" are germinating.  Chemo worked in the past and it can work again.  A guy that he considers a top expert in the field of esophageal cancer really likes a particular chemical but its side effects are pretty uncomfortable; a very nasty neuropathy that involves temperature super sensitivity.  No hot drinks or cold drinks. No ice cream. No hot showers. No going out on cold or hot days. No thanks. Dr. Scott was really recommending a different cocktail that would allow me to continue working.  Some of the usual side effects like hair loss, diminished taste, nausea and diarrhea, lowered white blood cell count, but nothing as severe as what flattened me 2 summers ago.  And if it doesn't work, we can still try the other chemo.  So we are starting next week.  I'll know the specifics on Monday and infusions at the infusion center will start on Tuesday.

So these are the drugs I will be introducing to my system:

• Irinotecan - Irinotecan is a chemotherapy drug made from a type of plant alkaloid known as a topoisomerase I inhibitor. It is thought to work by blocking the action of an enzyme in cells called topoisomerase I. Cells need this enzyme to keep their DNA in the proper shape when they are dividing into 2 cells. Blocking this enzyme leads to breaks in the DNA, which leads to cell death. Because cancer cells divide faster than normal cells, they are more likely than normal cells to be affected by irinotecan.
• Carboplatin - Carboplatin is a platinum chemotherapy drug that acts like an alkylating agent. It stops the growth of cancer cells, causing the cells to die.

I think this will be weekly for 4 weeks but I'll know for sure on Monday. 

Ahhh, it's a bummer and I'm going to miss the energy I have right now and especially miss the taste of food. But it is only for a short time and then it will be spring.  I've done this before and I can do it again.  The last time, a few months of sickness was followed by a year and a half of awesome life.  Going for a repeat of that!