The Good & The Bad

It's Day 15 of the first cycle for the clinical trail, and thankfully everything seems to be going smoothly! I've been able to live life pretty normally since I have a lot of energy and minimal side effects. Makes for a happy girl! That is, now that today's appointments are over...



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First of all, I found out too late that I wasn't suppose to take the morning dose of my meds until after I had my lab work done at the hospital. So instead of getting everything out of the way today, I'll be up at Moffitt again for multiple blood draws over a five hour time period. Can't wait. :/

I had to have another skin biopsy done this morning.  There's a nice matching circle on my other leg where they took the skin sample from for the research study.  Luckily the skin biopsy procedure isn't too bad...unlike the needle biopsy I would encounter later.

After the last needle biopsy that I had on Day 1 was so horrible and painful, I requested to either be sedated or put under during the procedure.  They decided to just give me a sedative about 30 minutes prior and began numbing the area (left auxilla).  The procedure uses an ultrasound to guide a needle to the tumor in order to remove a piece for research purposes.  Here's the good news -- the tumors are all looking smaller! (So exciting since that means this medicine seems to be working). But bad news for me today was the fact that the tumors got smaller made it near impossible for them to get the samples they need.  After several failed attempts and some extreme pain to me, they finally decided to stop and only continue if I'm under limited anesthesia. Glad this conclusion came after I was traumatized for a second time with this procedure...ughhh!

Afterwards I had to go across the street over to the Florida Eye Clinic to have my 15 day checkup on my eyes.  All went well as there is no swelling or significant changes thus far. That finished up the day and we were homeward bound!

 I'll be back up at Moffitt tomorrow and then again for a morning blood draw on Wednesday. Busy week for me! I am excited to know that there seems to be some tumor shrinkage. Makes all this other crap seem worth it!  We will know more official results when I get CT scans done before starting Cycle 2. Guess it just shows you gotta take the good with the bad! :)

Week 1

Thought I'd take advantage of some unheard of free time this morning before I head off to a training class for work and provide a quick status update of how the trial is going so far.  I'm officially on Day 3 of my trial, and I've quickly realized the side effects are starting to kick in right away.  The medicine made me feel nauseous all day the first day of treatment, so they have me taking Prochlorperazine for relief.  My eyesight is also being affected, as a few hours after taking the medicine I start to get blurred vision and what I describe as a "camera flash" effect.  Luckily this only occurs for a couple hours and then my vision is back to normal.  But I'll be putting in a call today to the doctors to see if this is going to be a concern in the long run.

Other than that, everything has been going smoothly.  I think one of the hardest things to figure out while on this trial is when to take the medicine.  I'm not allowed to eat two hours before and two hours after taking the medicine in the morning and then one hour before and after taking it at night.  So trying to figure out a time 12 hours apart that works with eating meals at semi-normal times seems impossible.  Especially this week, since my training starts later and we have the holiday weekend coming up.  Hopefully next week I'll figure out times that make sense and work out best for the workweek and weekend!

Anyways, I had a great weekend away with my mom in Orlando.  We stayed at the Shades of Green resort at Disney and spent Saturday at Disney's Hollywood Studios.  On our way home we stopped by Keel and Curley winery, did some wine tasting, and went on their tour.  Even with all the rain, we had a great time! So excited for a short week, can't wait to simply relax!

Next doctor's appointment is on Monday for some simple blood tests, physical, and evaluation.  Hope everything keeps going smoothly, and most of all that these medicines are working!!!

Have a great holiday weekend!