Well, last night went fairly well. Not too much weeping and wailing, and everyone got a chance to hear all the news first hand. No objections to our designations in the Trust, so that is good as well.
This morning I started the chemo. No major side effects yet, but the stuff does make me feel pretty spacey. Kinda like what Vicodin does to me--makes me feel like my head is stuffed with cotton, but doesn't stop pain worth a damn. According to the info I have the common things to watch for are diarrhea (of course...), hand/foot syndrome (basically sloughing), taste changes, headaches, oral sores and hypertension. Which reminds me, in nursing school the running joke during Pharmacology was that every medication in the hospital causes hypertension, seizures and death. So, let's look at the PDR. Yep, HTN, Seizures and Myocardial Infarction. I guess the old joke holds true.
I have been doing a bit of research on the Sutent. It seems to be somewhat effective at extending the time without progression, but it is not a cure. The only thing that seems to offer any hope of a cure is treatment with Interferron and Interlukin 2. And that is only effective in about 6-10% of cases. It is also only attempted after the primary tumor has been removed, so who knows if it will even apply for me...
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