Chemo Treatment 10

Yesterday was Christian's 10th Chemo Treatment.

It was also her first treatment after having her liver resection a little over a month ago.

We were not sure what to expect as we were told that her body may not tolerate the chemo the same way it did before having 2/3 of her liver removed.

Not sure if we have shared the fact that they have removed one of the three chemo drugs from her regiment for these last 3 treatments or not, but if so, here it is again.
Dr. Paluri has removed the Oxaliplatin from her regiment for these last three treatments. 
So I believe her regiment is now a version of FOLFIRI. With the Oxaliplatin I believe it was FOLFOXIRI.
It is great that it was that specific drug (of the three) that was removed, because it was the one that causes the cold sensitivity and the neuropathy. After her 9th treatment (back in September) the following 4-5 weeks (leading up to surgery) her cold sensitivity and neuropathy had worn off and wasn't really a problem. Then it started to show back up (even though she had not been on chemo). Dr. Paluri said these side effects can be accumulative, and can take a little while to present themselves. She has been having some tingling and numbness in her fingertips and toes for the past few weeks. I will let her talk more about that on one of her videos. That was one of the things considered in the decision to remove that drug.

Back to the treatment day...

She had her labs done, and we talked with Dr. Paluri while we waited for them to come back.
When they came back, her white count & platelets were low, but not low enough to cancel treatment. 
She will be getting the Neulasta shot on Wednesday afternoon (when she goes to get her 5FU chemo pump un-hooked), so that will help boost her white count. She has not been having any nose bleeds or anything like that, so her platelets are low, but not bad low.

We talked to Dr. Paluri about precautions or anything we need to take with her white count being low.
He said it is low, but not terribly low, so we should be ok. Just don't go hanging around anyone that is sick, and if she spikes a fever for any reason to call him.

The last thing we were waiting for was her CEA Level reading to come back. That is the specific tumor marker blood test that basically tells you how active the cancer is in her body. 

Below is a picture of what her CEA Level has done through this entire process.
4/7/21        At the time of diagnosis
4/26/21     2.5 weeks later, right before her first chemo treatment
6/21/21     After 4 rounds of chemo
8/9/21       After 7 rounds of chemo
11/8/21     After 9 rounds of chemo & the liver resection

So that shows you, that her cancer was very active upon diagnosis. Then just 2.5 weeks later, it was even more active because there was nothing treating it. This makes sense because during the three weeks in the hospital, we saw the tumors in her liver (they did not know they were tumors at the time) grow on each of the three CT scans she had during that time. You can see how it has continued to get under control with chemo treatments and with removing the part of her liver that was housing all of the tumors.

We proceeded to Pod E and got a window pod. She had some co-workers come visit for a little while. 
She did not get the IV Benadryl, because she is not getting the Oxaliplatin anymore, so no instant nap for her like the past few treatments. She did manage to sneak in a little nap tho.

Everything went well and it was uneventful, which is good. The treatment was a shorter amount of time since she had dropped the Oxali (that was around 2hrs in itself). So we got out of there around 12:30pm.

I got her home and comfortable on the couch and that is where she stayed for the rest of the day. She said she felt fine, just drained and tired, which is to be expected.

She wanted a picture of her doing this for the 10th treatment

She is the cutest.. I asked her what she was going to do on her next treatment, because she only has 10 fingers.. lol she said she would have to figure it out.

Anyways, I will put up a follow up post later in the week to let everyone know how she handles this treatment. Thursday will be a good day to gage it I would say, so that is probably when you will hear from me next, unless of course something comes up between now and then.

Thanks for all the prayers and support. We are very glad and grateful to be getting close to the end of this journey, and hope everything keeps "going according to plan".