Follow up with Dr. C (Friday, Jan 25, 13) Chemo. Round 3. Day 1 (Jan 28, 2013)

     Well, hello there. I'm terribly sorry that I've been such a blog slacker. Tayvia is getting much more mobile these days and I have to keep a closer eye on her.  Between that and toying with sleep training her (doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon. Maybe I just want results faster than they actually happen. CIO seems to be the only option which I'm not willing to do) it's hard to find a minute to myself and feel like it's probably so boring to hear from me all the time so I've been waiting so that Eric can have his chance to tell you his thoughts on how things are going, how he feels and what not. I think he will soon but before we get too behind on what's new I better write another post myself.

     Last Friday we met with Dr. Chandramouli. Just a routine follow up between chemo cycles. He said that he normally doesn't do MRI scans on patients in the middle of treatment but felt that it was important to with Eric just to make sure that the cancer is responding and not getting worse.
     I don't really think that Dr. Chandramouli knew about our little visit to the E.R. the night before because it was a different oncologyst (Dr. Nibble) from his office who called Eric with Thursday's scan results. Even though we took the most recent scan from IMC to the Utah Cancer Specialists clinic I dont think that Dr. Nibble received it because the two scans that he was comparing was the one from the very beginning (where we were seeing where exactly the cancer had spread) and Thursday's scan. Comparing those two there was an obvious difference. If he would have compared the more recent scans it would have saved the trip to the ER because the more recent scans both showed where the spleen was embolized. Oh well, chalk that one up to experience.

     It is GREAT news that the cancer is no longer spreading and that it is responding to treatment. YAY! We did ask Dr. Chandramouli if we could see the comparison for ouselves from the two scans but he was having difficulty viewing it on his computer for some reason but said that he would get it pulled up and we could look at them this sometime this week.  They say if your tumors don't respond well to Cispaltin then your chances of being cured go down. So it's wonderful to see that Eric's tumors ARE responding.
     One side affect from Cispaltin is ringing in the ears. Combine that with plugged ears from radiation that still hasn't gone away and Eric can't hear very well right now. Eric has tried a home remedy to at least unplug them but it didn't seem to help much.
     They are watching Eric's blood counts closely. If his white cell count goes down anymore I believe that they will give him a shot to help boost production.
     There was some discusion about Eric's weight. Dr. Chandramouli encouraged Eric to continue eating pasta's and healthy pizza's. Eric seems to be a little bit more nauseas these days. He likes eating rice but potatos don't seem to sit well for some reason. I bought soda (I know it's not the healthiest) to help get him some calories. Back when I was sick my dad got me some popsicles and Eric has at least one or two a day. He seems to enjoy those! Eric also likes smoothies and shakes!

     Monday: I think that things went well for Eric today (first day of 3rd round of chemo). He seemed to come home feeling alright. Most of the time I feel like he is really tired when he comes home and just heads downstairs for the night. Today after coming home he played with Tayvia, took Bella (our dog) for a walk, and even tried out his new Black Ops game. Bam!