Rediscovered Time

It is hard to believe it has already been 4 weeks since my last update.  Most of you know already but I did end up getting the last round of the A/I chemotherapy and it went as well as all the previous rounds did.  I made it through all 6 rounds without even a hint of nausea which still had all of the nurses and my oncologist surprised but at least it was a good surprise.  The red blood cells in my urine that were a concern were chalked up to just being another way my body was saying it was done with chemo and needed a break since the extra fluids did the trick of flushing them out overnight.  I was discharged on January 31st and it was the best feeling ever knowing that I had made it through chemo and would be moving on to the next steps of the journey.

The last 4 weeks have been wonderful in a lot of ways but the best part has been simply being able to just be and not feeling like I'm partially living out of a suitcase all the time.  Having just a couple of weeks at home between rounds of chemo had definitely taken a toll on all 3 of us so it has been nothing short of bliss getting to spend all of our time together lately.  We haven't done anything too exciting though we did spend the afternoon at the aquarium last Saturday and will hopefully be able to go to St George for a few days soon. I am also excited for spring -  the flowers, everything being green again, the warmth, and the hope that always seems to come with all of it. Another thing we are looking forward to is attending church again. Our ward still broadcasts the meetings so we are able to watch them from home but it just isn't the same as being there in person. Elliott has started swimming lessons and while he didn't like the first one at all the 2nd and 3rd lessons went much better.  He actually cried when we were leaving his lesson today because he wanted to play in the water more.

We met with Dr F on February 6th to solidify the plan for immunotherapy and get any questions we had about it answered.  At the time the thinking was that I wouldn't be able to start immunotherapy until mid-late March going off the assumption that my white blood cell count would take about 5-6 weeks to recover again as it had prior to the last round of chemo.  However, the blessings have kept happening because just a week later my counts had full recovered. In fact, at this very moment I am sitting in the hospital waiting for my lab results to come back before getting my first dose of immunotherapy. 

The plan as of now is for me to have 3 rounds of immunotherapy at which point my illeostomy can be reversed as long as the immunotherapy at least maintains the size of my tumor or there is very, very minimal growth.  I'll receive immunotherapy every 6 weeks- my next round is already scheduled for April 4th.  At the same time my illeostomy will be reversed I will also be receiving HIPEC.

Now for a few things about immunotherapy.  There a multiple types of immunotherapy but the kind I am getting essentially puts the brakes on my own immune system to give it time to restrengthen while at the same time learning how to fight cancer cells more effectively.  As with any treatment there are side effects that may happen but things like fatigue and nausea are typically much milder than they are with chemo.  Dr F said most people say they only feel fatigued for a day or two after receiving immunotherapy before feeling an energy rebound so I'm looking forward to that. 

Another nice thing about immunotherapy is that it doesn't cause your blood levels to go up and down like crazy so I'm also celebrating only needing lab checks right before each round rather than needing checks the whole time in-between. Some patients experience Immune Related Adverse effects - referred to as IRAs - which could be just about anything since your own immune cells can get confused during immunotherapy and start to travel to places in your body where they normally don't go.  We were told the most problematic place for them to get to would be the heart but that they most commonly like to go to the liver and kidneys.  I was told that my main job as the patient is to let Dr F's team know of any sudden changes - even something as simple as sneezing a lot all of a sudden - because other than blood work that is the only way they'll know that I may need to be checked for possible IRAs. 

As for the HIPEC chemo the full name is Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy.  The first thing that would happen is likely the removal of my tumor.  HIPEC is a more concentrated type of chemo that is poured into your abdominal cavity, heated up, and then is left there basically as long as is deemed necessary by the surgeon.  It is known to be an effective treatment for more advanced stages of some cancers because the chemo can get to places that traditional chemo can't.  The goal for it is that it will kill any remaining cancer cells and get rid of smaller growths. 

So, now you all know the entire plan moving forward as it stands right now.  My 3rd round of immunotherapy should be sometime the week of May 12th and we are hoping my surgery will happen very shortly after that simply because we have fun trips at the end of the summer to look forward to that we missed out on last year and full recovery time for my surgery will be around 6 weeks.

More immediately I'm hoping I'll be up to some hiking this spring since last spring that was definitely not the case.  The mountains are 100% my happy place so I plan to visit them as much as I feel up to it this spring and summer. There is just something so peaceful about being in nature that helps one decompress and relax which is something I have sorely missed this past year as I simply didn't feel up to adventuring much at all. 

For now I'll bid thee adieu with a request for prayers that immunotherapy will at least maintain the current state of my cancer so I can ditch my least favorite accessory - my ostomy bag - soon.