Now on Taxol

As of 9/4/08 my oncologist, Dr. Dwight Im, took me off Cisplatin/Gemzar after my CA125 spiked 89.9 points to 323.9. He put me on Taxol. They’re giving me small doses of Taxol on three successive Thursdays with a bye on the fourth Thursday (blood draw only with labs sent to Weinberg). The 3-on, 1-off series is considered one treatment. So yesterday I received Taxol 1B as well as four grams of magnesium.

Taxol has its own set of side effects: low blood counts (increased risk for infection); hair loss, pain in joints and muscles, numbness and tingling of the hands and feet, nausea/vomiting; diarrhea, mouth sores, and reactions such as fever, facial flushing, chills, shortness of breath, or hives. Lesser common effects are edema, increases in blood tests measuring liver functions, low blood pressure and nail changes.

So just as my head hair has regown into straight, white, baby-fine threads less than an inch long and I’ve recovered 9.5 fingernails, it looks like I’ll take a hit on them again. Time to dig out the wig and baseball hats.

Because they’re doling out this first treatment in thirds, it’ll probably be after I complete the series next Thursday before I have to buzz my head to prevent hair in my shower drain.

The 14th of this month marks the second anniversary of meeting with my oncology surgeon and getting his verification of my stage IIIC ovarian cancer diagnosis. And I’m now on my 5th chemo protocol. As the joke about the former elementary teacher turned hooker says, “We have to keep doing it until we get it right.”

More blood!

Figured when they gave me two units of whole blood last month (7/17/08) that would be an annual event. I had chemo 7/24/08, then had a bye week 7/31/08 and started another round of chemo (session 3A) on 8/7/08.

When I showed up at 9 a.m. yesterday, expecting part 3B of chemo, the nurses had several tries at finding a working vein. After wrapping both my arms in warm blankets for 15 minutes, my chemo nurse, Terri, got an IV in my right inside wrist.

About noon, Dawn, my other chemo nurse, informed me that the labs had come back on my blood work. My blood count was down again, and I was getting two units of whole blood and 4 grams of magnesium rather than chemo. So she had to collect another vial of blood for typing and send it down to the lab.

When you get a unit of blood, two nurses have to verify in writing that you are who is supposed to get the blood. Paperwork has to be signed and vitals have to be monitored throughout the 2-hour process to put one unit into one’s body. Last time I got two units of A negative, but yesterday I got two units of A positive. I’m A positive so I can get both A positive and negative as well as O. Four grams of magnesium takes about 1 ½ hours to get.

Your body needs magnesium in order to perform a variety of functions, from energy, enzyme, and hormone production, to bone, muscle, and neurological health. I’ve been getting magnesium by IV pretty routinely lately. I left Mercy at 8:30 p.m. along with my two nurses, leaving the cleaning crew to its work. Traffic in Baltimore was clear but it was still 9:30 p.m. before I got home. Long day.

But I’m pretty perky today. Having oxygen will do that for a person.

Terri says blood transfusions are routine for someone who has been on chemo nearly non-stop for almost two years. Chemo is cumulative, damaging my bone marrow and interfering with my body’s ability to manufacture blood. The primary function of red blood cells is to carry oxygen and carbon dioxide. Hemoglobin is an important protein in the red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to all parts of our body. The primary function of white blood cells is to fight infection. So getting transfused, while it delays getting chemo, helps in the long run.

And I’m in this for the long run.

The Campbells new home

Mid-August Tyler moved from the townhouse where he was born to 4 miles SW, still in Columbia, but a single family home with a huge back yard. Behind that is a hiking/bike trail with playgrounds. The neighbors have an apple tree which drew a mother deer and her 3 babies, groundhogs, squirrels and rabbits all summer. The family room window and/or screened in porch at back offered daily views of a variety of wildlife. The house also offers more room, garage with auto doors and more bedrooms. Tyler took to it immediately as it offers many more nooks and crannies to play in.

A unit of blood takes 2 hours!

Last Thursday (7/17/08), my blood count was in the toilet so they cancelled my chemo and instead pumped in two units of whole blood and a unit of magnesium. Each unit of whole blood takes 2 hours to go into my body. Problem was because of my low blood count, it was hard to find a vein. Took them four tries to get an IV line in and get blood out for lab work.

When the lab work indicated I needed whole blood, they realized the chemo line was too fine to use for putting in the fatter blood globules. So they had to get in someone who put a fatter line in my right arm (the first four were in my left) for the blood. When they started the first unit of blood, it started to be painful. Turns out the blood was leaking out of the vein into the tissue surrounding it. Not comfortable at all.

So they had to stop that one and call in another nurse who put in another Fat line into my right arm (hole #6). Fortunately this one worked but it was nearly 3 p.m. by this time and nearly four hours required to seep two units of blood into my body. Fortunately the thin line was still in my left wrist and Terri (my chemo nurse) got the bright idea to start the magnesium into my left arm simultaneously with the blood going into my right arm (think Marionette puppet when I went to the bathroom!!) otherwise I wouldn't have gotten out of there at 8 p.m. when I did.

I kidded my chemo nurses that they kept me so I wouldn't get caught in Baltimore’s rush hour traffic. Chemo (part 2B) is slated for next Thursday.

Fortunately, with two units of blood and a unit of magnesium in me, I felt great this past weekend when my cousin Deanna and her husband Paul arrived for the weekend. Deanna's mom and my mom were sisters. She and Paul live in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis. They headed back home Monday morning. Paul said he thought his gas mileage returning to Missouri will be less than the 40 mph he got coming out as both he and Deanna will be much heavier after we ate a lot this weekend. Also visited with my kids and grandson and spent a lot of time enjoying the breeze blowing into shore at my community beach. Check out updated photos at http://campbellbaby.blogspot.com/.

Also pictured on the blog is step-son Brian’s photo and his newly launched sailboat Problem Child which he CAD-designed and built. He plans to begin racing it on the Bay and hopefully the new PC will garner more pewter and first-place finishes than his previously designed and built Problem Child.

Missouri cousins come to visit

In July, my cousin Deanna and husband Paul drove out to spend the weekend enjoying crabcakes and other Chesapeake good food as we ate our way thru the days. Megan, Alex and son Tyler joined us for dinner at Adam's Ribs in SP before heading to my community beach front. Tyler enjoyed the playground while the more sendentary types enjoyed watching the sun set over the headwaters of the Severn River in Round Bay. I still had some hair (left), Megan getting slimmer chasing a son, Alex--my other son, Deanna (our mothers were sisters) and Paul, her talented husband who's cooking for his still-working school nurse wife. A treasure for sure.

Cisplatin/Gemzar and hole in roof

OK. Where did we leave off? After 12 sessions of Taxotere/Caboplatin, I was declared clear of cancer activity and given a 3-month reprieve from chemo. Then cancer came back in two nodes and a pleural effusion (lining of the lung). After four sessions of the drug Topotecan, the doctors determined it wasn’t working so they switched me to Doxil. After the fourth session of Doxil (which, by the way, has some really nasty side effects like scabs, rash, and/or blisters where clothes touch your body) they blessedly pulled me off of that chemo.

June 19 they started me on a combo of Cisplatin/Gemzar which is given on two consecutive Thursdays with the third Thursday just blood drawn for labs. The 3-week cycle is considered one treatment.

Not sure how much my past weekend’s nausea/vomiting/diarrhea is related to the Cisplatin, notorious for causing same. Recently Tyler brought home a diarrhea bug from daycare; several people at work have complained of stomach flu recently; and gather a virulent flu bug has been going thru Severn Park.

Nauseous and vomiting over the weekend, I called out of work on Monday, but dragged myself to work on Tuesday looking like death warmed over, according to some. My acupuncturist said my energy level was extremely low when I saw him at noon so he left my needles, etc. in longer, I think, to give me more chi. I admit I felt better after my appointment so hope the worst is over.

Today is Induction Day at the U.S. Naval Academy; more than 1,200 plebes report to begin their journey through the Academy. Just prior to all this, the Public Affairs Office and our Publications Office got new carpeting and office furniture. So the past few weeks, everything has been in an uproar at work. Am back in my office but still have to unpack boxes and put everything in new places.

On the home front, Megan and Alex sold their townhouse and were briefly without a home until their offer was accepted on the second house they bid on. They move to a single family home several miles west of their old TH in Columbia in mid-August.

June 6 several tornadoes hit the area, with one tearing up huge trees in a community a few miles south of my home in Round Bay. One family lost their back porch as well as the three family autos to various trees. The next morning Dylan and I heard a huge thud on our roof; a dead limb had fallen onto our roof. Dylan initially told me it hadn’t done any damage to the roof, only had torn the gutter away from the end of the flashing. A week later when he went up to throw the limb off the roof, he realized the limb had gouged a fist-sized hole into the roof. He tarped and sandbagged it until I was able to have it repaired before torrential downpours could damage the dining room ceiling. Never a dull moment at the Joneses.

Father's Day Brunch

Christine and Dylan joined all of us at the Double T Diner in Pasadena.