Staying Moist, Getting Clear

We met with the onc last Tuesday for the usual check up and chemo and the good news is that my billies have trailed down a bit more to about 6 mg/dl. A very good sign but still not quite there. I am hoping that the dose I got Tuesday will be enough to push me clear and I will finally be done with this problem. An added benefit of Vectibix, though, is that it’s much milder on the body than the other things I’ve taken. No nausea or digestive issues – just the rash. And I have found that the antibiotics and the moisturizing do a pretty good job of keeping that at bay. I moisturize now more than a Swedish model…it’s part of my daily beauty regiment!!


Anyway, that’s all good and I hope it will all pay off with an “all clear” in two weeks. This past weekend, however, I did have a physical breakdown where my liver pain flared up as bad as it had ever been and I spent most of the day Monday exhausted in bed. I was worried that it was a sign that the Vectibix had stopped working. But Dr. S thinks that I have an “intratumoral bleed” which is to say that somehow I mashed one of the tumors and it’s acting up. He told me that the pain should subside in 3 to 5 days and that I should not curtail my physical activity – I thought perhaps I did it shoveling some snow last weekend or building a fire when we had no power. He said I could have done it then or by sneezing or rolling over in bed or any of a million other ways. So, I should stay the course on trying to push myself physically. And, I think he was right – the pain has dropped off significantly in the last couple of days.

So, we are still on course…just need to be patient (never my strong suit)…and keep eating, moving about and moisturizing! Hope you have all weathered the big October snows (if you got hit). We had a fair amount of tree damage but nothing major and even got our power back after just one day – much luckier than many friends and neighbors who have only come back online in the last day or so. Enjoy the weekend!