Well That Was NOT Easier!!!!

Whew ... the new chemo regimen did not prove to be easier on David & totally caught us off guard!  He received the new treatment on Tuesday, January 30th.  By the evening of the 31st, David had a fever, headache, body aches, decreased appetite / nausea, & was developing an itchy rash on his abdomen.  While some people do experience flu-like symptoms with Gemcitabine & Abraxane, there was some concern among David's medical team that he had developed the flu.  We were very skeptical as David didn't have a runny nose, sneezing, or coughing.  So, he rode out the fever, headache, body aches, & decreased appetite for three to four days -- each morning he felt a little better, but by late afternoon on those days, he was feeling very ill.  Finally, the fever broke & all of his symptoms except for the rash dissipated.  The rash, however, progressed to cover about 80% of his body & the itchiness drove him crazy!  To the rescue came our good friend, Karen Nishimura, who was David's medical school classmate & is a practicing dermatologist in the Sacramento area.  Karen has seen & treated this type of chemo induced rash over the years, & was able to prescribe oral & topic medications to relieve the itching & quiet the whole mess down.  In addition, she has been in contact with David's oncologist & they are planning on loading David up with some pre-chemo steroids before his next treatment to hopefully minimize the rash.

Because we just switched from a chemo that was being given at three week intervals to this chemo that is to be given at two week intervals, we had already made plans to travel this coming week -- Dr. Fanta did not want us to change our plans for a trip, so we have an extra week to recover before the next chemo treatment on February 20th.  Our initial thought was to go to our cabin in Colorado to get a mountain fix & play in the snow.  Alas, they have received very little snow (there are maybe two inches on the ground at our cabin at 8,400 feet!), so we scratched that idea.  Then we gave some thought to a trip to Florida to visit with family (David's mother & my brothers & sister, plus lots of nieces & nephews) & spend time at the beach, but the trip to Florida from San Diego is a long one & more than we felt we could handle on the heels of a very tough chemo week.  Instead, we found a cruise that leaves right out of San Diego & visits three ports in Mexico (Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, & Puerto Vallarta) with three days spent at sea.  Cruising has always worked well for us -- pack & unpack once, a wide variety of food available throughout the day & evening (which is a huge bonus for David's sensitive gut & usually allows him to travel without losing weight), activities to participate in if we choose to, different ports to explore, & warm, sunny places where we can relax (weather permitting, which looks like it might just cooperate for us).  So, on Sunday we will head south, & hopefully come back with our souls filled with some happy times before we continue the fight.

Big hugs, Janet