Next-to-last treatment today. See Dr. Sanfilippo for my last status check after the final treatment tomorrow. Not feeling horrible, but the sedatives I’m taking every night to sleep –or just to rest comfortably –leave me draggy during the day. And yes, rotating chemicals seems to work –at least, Ambien worked again after three days off. Sore throat has been annoying but not unbearable. Loss of voice very inconvenient. Exercise tolerance quite low.
On the other hand, on Sunday I graduated from “Obese” to “Overweight” on the standard BMI chart, and the one 46L suit I kept around now fits perfectly.
Went to a for-profit stand-alone lab (Labcorp) today for routine blood and urine tests. Pretty grimy. I think I’ll go back to Columbia, though it’s more of a schlep. If the results look good in terms of kidney function, I’ll be able to raise the dose of Entresto and –with luck –feel reasonably normal again.
Today’s treatment involved an unnecessary scare. The technicians said that today was my weekly X-ray. (I’m not sure what it’s supposed to show; surely a 1cm soft-tissue tumor can’t be visible?) After they put the mask on and clamped me in –which means I can’t see anything –I heard the sound of what I guess was he X-ray machine and then the brilliant flash. Then I waited. And waited. And waited. Usual treatment takes about 2 min. from being clamped in to being released; this must have been close to 15 minutes, and the treatment still hadn’t happened. I started imagining all sorts of things that could have gone wrong, but no one was saying anything.
Finally I heard the sound of the treatment and was unclamped. As I got up, I said to one of the technicians, “What the hell just happened.” Answer? Nothing. The M.D. had to look at the X-ray before the treatment went ahead, and he was busy.
Since I don’t have any clear idea which of my symptoms relate to the cancer, which to the radiation (except the sore throat, the sleep problem that comes from the sore throat, and the sunburned neck), which to the cardiomyopathy, and which to the renal insufficiency, I’m not sure how much better I’ll feel a month from now. Fingers crossed.