It is late today that Joan will be most grateful to have the PICC line removed for good. She will be on a different Chemo regime starting immediately. Instead if the infusion of three poisons every two weeks she will be getting an infusion of Avastin every three weeks through a vein in her hand and daily tablets of Xeloda. Side effects will be much the same losing a couple and gaining a couple. One she will get, is very red hands.
The oncologist told us that at this stage many patients get a 'chemo holiday', but not Joan. There are too many liver tumours to risk the holiday. He also told us of the discussion he had with a surgeon about removing the bowel cancer. They both agreed that the time lost in recuperating from bowel surgery would probably give the liver tumours new life. So she will be on permanent chemo unless we see a dramatic improvement. The blood marker has continued to come down and is now 500 from the initial 9,200.
We are off to Queensland for the PNG reunion on Monday. Away for 9 days.
This morning I received a package of ink cartridges from a supplier in Hong Kong. There are 14 chipped Canon compatible cartridges which cost A$28 including postage to our door. That is about half of one genuine cartridge. Poo to all the folks who look down on non-original cartridges. That is where brands like Canon, HP, Brother etc etc make their money: not on sales of the actual printers.
This blog has a few regular readers, but one in Mountain View, California is the most regular and most often. I suspect it is a relative who lives in California. Love to hear from him/her in a comment.
2 comments:
Kind wishes to Joan at this stressful time. Our thoughts are with you both. Paul and Jill.
Best of luck to you Joan! My prayers go to you! Be strong and have faith!
Post a Comment