Radiation and more

Look for the beauty in life, in people, nature 

and most of all in yourself.

~Lee (BCNA) 

 Even though we are still having some cold days, mostly the weather is warmer and certainly drier.  I am really enjoying the garden and the park across the road.  I have a white waratah in the garden that is flowering (see picture above), the Kangaroo Paws are flowering even better than when I last wrote and there are even some red and green ones that I thought had died that have come up to say hi.

The morning walk with the dogs brings me a lot of happiness.  They really know how to enjoy themselves, such happy, enthusiastic little beings.   We took them up to the Blue Mountains for the day (that's two weeks in a row) and were again blessed with wonderful weather.  The dogs were thoroughly delighted with the new smells, certainly a lot more than the view that we humans were so entranced with.

Last weekend I went to Tea Gardens again for a few days  in between radiation treatments to visit my mother.  The beauty about that area is that it is not yet overdeveloped and has a river,  stunning bay and ocean beaches with lakes and national park nearby.  It is wonderfully quiet compared to Sydney but still has some lovely cafes along the water.  Great variety of birds and can hear a different  frogs at night.  The only ones we get at are the Common Marsh frog which sounds like a dripping tap.  Get some different sounds in the park.


Finished the radiation treatment and the predictions of effects are coming true.  Very red nose and surrounding area, severe ulceration of upper gum and inside upper lip as well as the inside of my nose is very painful and crusty and bleeding intermittently.  Using aloe vera liberally plus saline nose washes and various other concoctions up the nose and under my lip.  Nights are the hardest.  Another week or so of symptoms and things should start to improve. 

On Tuesday I saw the radiation oncologist, my usual oncologist who directs the chemo and my 'alternative' holistic GP.   The radiation oncologist said all was going as expected and to see him in a 6 months for the bcc unless I was worried.  My regular oncologist was about the same i.e. playing the waiting game. The previous week I had  a blood test to recheck CA15.3 and much to my consternation it was now 177.  Scary!  Now it could be skewed by the radiation treatment and the inflammation that has caused, so retest in a month and reassess then.  I went off the thalidomide on the 2nd of September to see if it helped with the peripheral neuropathy and I am due to go back on it at the end of the month.  There appears to be no alternative to the thalidomide (for antiangiogenesis) other than maybe avastin, which is an iv drug that I have been on before and it gave me very bad gastritis, so bad in fact that I was hospitalised.  Don't really want to use that again.  It would also mean having the infusions at a clinic as I would be unable to buy the drug and do the infusion myself. 

The GP came up with a good plan for working out the nausea.  He thinks it is gastritis and likely  due to one or more of the supplements I am taking or just the large volume of tablets (now up to 88 per day).  As more side effects start to develop from the anti cancer drugs additional supplements get added to try and counteract those effects.  That is on top of the various supplements that are 'anti cancer', immune boosters or supportive for various other body organs or functions.  Part of the plan is to not take any tablets other than Fareston for a few days, take slippery elm and when nausea subsides we have worked out a 4 stage re-introduction of the other tablets.  Can't do it one by one as it would take too long.

This week I am going to take it easy and let my face recover from the radiation.  Next week we are going to the Blue Mountains with the dogs for a full week.  Fantastic!

Surviving and thriving

Linda